Let’s take a trip back in time shall we? Today I would like to show you a series of brands who have implemented throwback or retro packaging as a campaign method to draw consumers to the brand. The featured brands will highlight food and beverage products, you may have seen some of these retro styled packaging products in your own local food establishments.
Buckle up, because here we go!
Soda
Pepsi is infamous for their Pepsi Throwback campaign. An older, but familiar looking logo placed on bottles and cans captured the attention of Pepsi drinkers everywhere. The “Made With Real Sugar” method stuck, Pepsi now includes Pepsi Real Sugar as a permanent product on their website.
Currently new on the market for Pepsi, is Pepsi 1893, a completely new design and color scheme for Pepsi: black and gold what! According to Pepsi.com the 1893 beverage represents “the makers of Pepsi Cola rewriting the history of refreshment with a bold combination of kola nuts, real sugar, and sparkling water to deliver a totally unexpected cola experience.” Talk about going back in time for taste!
We didn’t forget about you Mountain Dew! Similar to Pepsi, and owned by the Pepsi Corporation, Mountain Dew bottles took a trip back in time and for a period were sold with their older and much different looking logos. These old fashion bottles also proclaim the “made with real sugar” message. The logo shown furthest to the right is barely even recognizable as Mountain Dew with it’s lack of bold and skewed lettering that is.
Cereal
Breakfast blast from the past. Take a look at the retro packaging that was brought back by both your favorite cereal companies, Kellogg’s and General Mills.
The packaging here takes a simplicity route, the characters portrayed on the boxes look a bit less life-like than they do on their modern packaging. Tony the tiger doesn’t quite look like himself, however the slogans seemed to have stayed in place, “Snap, Crackle, Pop” lives on!
Similar colors and overall themes, but different fonts for these General Mills favorites. I guess Trix the Rabbit hadn’t been thought up yet, it was still a matter of years before anyone went “coo coo for Cocoa Puffs!”
Beer
Since were on the topic of classics, it’s only fair to touch on one of America’s favorite light beers. Take a look at the packaging timeline for Miller Lite. As you can see, in 2014 the retro packaging and logo for the beverage was brought back. As the original lite beer, I guess one could say this was Miller Lite’s way of keeping it classy! Check out this fun fact according to Bloomberg.com:
“The brand replaced the blue cans that have been in beer aisles since 2001, and an unexpected thing happened: Miller Lite sales immediately increased in the U.S. Encouraged, MillerCoors made the white cans permanent. Now bottles and tap handles will get the white label treatment, too.”
Lastly, let’s take a look at a beer that was born into retro packaging. Not Your Father’s Root Beer, by Small Town Brewery, is a hard root beer that has recently swept the nation as a delicious and spiced up beer that tastes similar to the root beer soft drink. However, this beer should not be confused with regular root beer, Not Your Father’s Root Beer contains 5.9% alcohol. The packaging itself, featuring an adult made with a top hat and cane (very vintage), sends us back in time to when wooden barrels and wooden cartons for beer bottles were the usual.
So what can we take from all of this? In some cases a lot has changed, in others not that much has changed. Packaging, especially in the food and beverage industry, truly speaks to the consumer and has an impact on whether or not the shopper actually picks it up off the shelf.