The Shape of Food: Tropicana Redesign

Yet another food packaging redesign brought to me (and therefore you) by Rachel. Tropicana recently redesigned their orange juice boxes, to relatively poor outcomes. It did so poorly they're actually pulling it off the self.

Now, I don't drink Tropicana, and this is not a product placement (neither is the cool whip entry), but I have some feelings about the qualities of both boxes as objects.

First of all, as a consumer object, the new box is more sale and less information. The old boxes are clearly labeled by their color and their text in the front and center. The for "pulp free" nearly disappears into the glass of orange juice, and the band along the top does little to inform. The glass of orange juice doesn't actually invoke orange juice (at least not for me), but says something more along the lines of orange Faygo. Gross? And the font is pretty boring, mundane modern text. Anyone could make that Word 2007 with the auto fonts.

But what do I love about this bottle? The cap, clearly. It's shaped like a little half an orange, evoking the previous symbol of Tropicana and the contents of the case itself. The little half-orange is pitted like a real orange (except made of plastic), and gives a continual reminder that , in fact, drinking orange juice is a pleasure.

So the redesign may have failed the test of the consumers (with whom I generally agree), but as far as I'm concerned, they were able to redeem themselves with that one little cap change. I really hope it stays, so I can get one and add it to my collection with the Cool Whip cap. Or I'll have to run out to the store soon and get one before they disappear off the shelves (as collectors items?! Probably not in Missouri...).