Short-run printed packaging; spooky special – part 1

With the summer over and autumn officially arriving in the UK, both according to the calendar and the wet weather, my wife and I were looking forward to a few weeks off from photographing specially themed printed packaging.

 

There are still a few examples to be seen highlighting the link between packaging and one-off events, such as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and London 2012 Olympics, but with the winners of my Pride of Britain Packaging Awards recently announced, I’ve brought to a close my hunt for themed packaging on show this summer.

 

I had planned all along to start a new photo blog looking at this winter’s packaging devoted to Christmas and the wider winter festive period observed in the Western world, but had hoped for a few weeks off.

 

However, upon going shopping this weekend I was encountered with the first signs of Santa Claus, Rudolph, snowflakes and other characters and symbols associated with Christmas on my local supermarket’s shelves.

 

But before Christmas comes Halloween, the annual holiday observed around the world. Although Halloween is not as well an established event in the UK as other countries, there is still plenty of specially themed packaging to be found.

 

Baked goods brand Mr Kipling has a number of variants on its popular French Fancies cake range, including Fiendish Fancies and Frankenstein Fancies. These take special flavors available around the Halloween holiday and replicate them on the folding carton they are retailed in.

 

Both Cadbury and McVitie’s have a series of themed cake bars to coincide with Halloween.

 

Cadbury Cinder Toffee and Spooky Strawberry cake bars, and Monster Mini Rolls, are available in suitably scary flexible packaging, as are McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes cake bars in “Spooky” and “Lemon and Slime” flavors.

 

McVitie’s is also selling sour blackcurrant flavored Spooky Cake Bars.

 

Sweet brand Haribo has a range of unique sweets specially for Halloween, taking place on October 31, including Horror Mix and Spooky Ghosts.

 

There are many others examples to be seen, and I’m sure there’ll be more to photograph in the coming weeks. But as I’ve already seen, expect there to be a crossover between the Halloween packaging I report on in the coming weeks and the increasing number of products and packaging types that appear on store shelves as Christmas moves closer, week-by-week.

 

As with my summer packaging “study”, I’m interested to know what you see in your local store. If you see any packaging featuring Halloween decoration, please post it on Twitter using the hashtag #halloweenpack. And if you see any packaging sporting the jolly face of Santa or snowmen, use the hashtag #xmaspackaging.

 

Alternatively, email them to me at [email protected].

 

I’ll be posting my first winter wonderland blog shortly, so look out for that, but in the meantime see all the Halloween and Christmas packaging I’ve seen so far here.