The Importance of Contrast!

It is no surprise to me! The new Tropicana packaging is a complete failure. What is a surprise is the visceral reaction of the consumer, they reacted immediately, both in the blogisphere and at the cash register.The figures are now in - the $35M rebranding campaign cost Tropicana a 20% loss in sales. This only goes to show that graphic artists cannot be without strong direction - not from their art director, but from the sales organization that is paying the bills.

And do any of these peep's ever get out to see where their products are displayed? Even George Bush the First who had never been in a grocery had more of an excuse, he was POTUS, after all. Orange juice is stored in a white refrigerator case with high key lighting - the new Tropicana label was all but lost there. The comparison image on the left does not do justice to just how washed out the labels looked in the refrigerator case in the grocery store.

This lack of contrast started in interiors in the 90's and went over to graphic arts, early on in the graphic arts it was dark on dark, pattern on pattern - all rendering things unreadable. (The original issues of WIRED magazine - in an attempt to be cool, were unreadable) Now it is light on light and only those with better than 20/20 vision can read many of the labels. As I said before, I don't take my reading glasses into the shower, nor do I expect to need them to buy groceries. The solution is so simple - we need contrast to make even smaller typeface more readable.

The old Tropicana label is, after all, iconic - Tropicana had a winner - they should have stayed with it. Icons, like Tide may be regularly tweaking their labels, but you can still recognize it on the shelf.

You can even listen to the original sales pitch for the "new and improved" packaging.