Short-run printed packaging; a supermarket odyssey – airport special

On my way to Chicago for last week’s Labelexpo Americas event, I passed through World Duty Free at Heathrow.

 

As the main hub for foreign visitors to the UK and London for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, it’s no surprise to learn that the shelves at World Duty Free were littered with examples of themed printed packaging bearing the Union Flag or other decorations synonymous with the UK.

 

From Retro Sweets to Chase vodka, the variety of products to be found was large, and generally in new and different packaging shapes and sizes than I’ve seen previously for this blog.

 

Take the Cadbury chocolate box that was seen in World Duty Free.

 

Cadbury has featured heavily in this blog thanks to its official tie-in with the London 2012 Olympics, with unique chocolate flavors and packaging designs to match.

 

The chocolate box takes the shape of an individual block of Cadbury chocolate replicated in carton, festooned with a cardboard gold medal and a red, white and blue ribbon.

 

Nestlé KitKat is another brand that has appeared previously in my unscientific “study”, but this time appearing in multipack cartons decorated with the Elizabeth Tower clock tower attached to the Palace of Westminster (Known as “Big Ben”, although this is just the name of the bell), and a London double decker bus.

 

Multipack cartons were available for both milk and dark chocolate KitKat variants.

 

There was the odd example of products we’ve already reported on in this blog, such as the Thorntons chocolate selection boxes and chocolate Union Flags, but on the whole World Duty Free was another great example of the range of uniquely themed printed packaging that has been available in the UK this summer. Although not all necessarily short-run printed packaging in the traditional sense, due to the nature of airport retail environments, it was a useful excursion and seems like a good place to bring this blog to a close.

 

I will be posting a “Printed Packaging: Pride of Britain” entry next week, where I’ll name my favorite examples of themed packaging from over this summer.

 

I’ll also be starting a new blog as we enter the run-up to Christmas. Supermarkets such as Tesco are already stocking Christmas products, so I’ll soon be on the lookout for Santa Claus, Rudolph and other images directly related to the festive season appearing on flexible and carton packaging.

 

I do hope you’ll follow me on that adventure, and thank you to all those that have been following this blog.