Posted on Mon, 18th Jan 2010 by Gary Jacobs
Monday Morning Cynic
Bad Package
I have a sweet tooth, I admit it, and when I returned home to an unusually empty house after a long day in the agency my eyes fell on one of my childhood favourites, a Sherbet Fountain. I assumed it must have belonged to one of my children, carelessly left lying about which, to my reckoning, meant it was fair play to be eaten.
Sherbet Fountain Magic Marker
When I picked up the sweet talcum like delicacy I was crest-fallen, "this is not a Sherbet Fountain" I screamed to myself "this is a Magic Marker dressed up to look like a Sherbet Fountain". The soft paper-wrapped cardboard outer that I had loved as a child was now a hard plastic exterior housing and what I could only imagine to be of non-edible ink-based matter more akin to a felt pen than a childhood memory. The licorice head too was plastic and capped shaped, again leading me to believe it was indeed a Sherbet Fountain facsimile of a Magic Marker. My mouth had been watering at the prospect of tasting the beautifully sweet and light white powder dusting my tongue with the licorice stick of pleasure. But no, my mind screamed, this is a Magic Marker of the inedible variety. Deeply disappointed, I sulkily pulled at the 'magic-markeresque cap with the reluctant intention of sniffing the inky-based solution as a poor substitute for the taste of sugar. And, low and behold, my confused mind became even more befuddled.
The Sherbet Fountain masquerading as a Magic Marker was indeed a Magic Marker masquerading as a Sherbet Fountain. If I was disappointed before I was totally pissed off now. As a soft supporter of the save our planet party I was appalled at the disgusting use of hard plastic packaging, which would take a millennium to decompose and which undoubtedly the recycling blokes would turf out of my black box of plastic bottles, wine bottles, tin cans and cardboard discards. A plastic tube designed and engineered to accommodate one stick of licorice and a mere few grams of sherbet, of which the costs of the content must have been severely out classed by the cost of the packaging, left a bitter taste in my mouth. And, if I had spent my own money on the offending article, rather than nick it from one of my children, I would have been even more offended.
Such was my distaste that I didn't even eat it. Which upset me even more. String the packaging department up, shoot the product designer, sack the production controller. And bring back my soft paper-wrapped childhood memory of a Sherbet Fountain. Please.
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Comments
Tue, 19th Jan 2010 15:54 pm
I love Sherbert fountains
Tue, 19th Jan 2010 16:33 pm
Gary it would appear you're not alone in your outrage at Tangerine Confectionery's (the Blackpool based manufacture of 'Sherbet Fountain') decision to ditch good-old biodegradable cardboard, for planet-harming plastic packaging for 'Sherbet Fountain', have a look at this article on The Independents site:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/customers-in-a-fizz-over-sweetshop-favourite-1674736.html
Tue, 19th Jan 2010 17:26 pm
This is happening with lots of products, which flies in the face of retailing going green - although it's normally to create some sort of store display presence. Or you could be like me and decant your new purchase into some older classic packaging (Brasso and Andrew's spring to mind) - it doesn't solve the problem but makes you feel better when you use the familiar retro product.
Tue, 23rd Feb 2010 17:59 pm
'... dusting my tongue with the licorice stick of pleasure'?
You need professional help, sweetie.
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