Themed printed packaging; winter wonderland – part 2

It has been a few weeks since my first blog about the themed packaging centered around Christmas that I’m seeing on the shelves in 2012.

 

This has been for a good reason. So fast, and so full-on, have store shelves become ladened with flexible and carton packaging printed with images and graphics representing Christmas and the wider festive season that I’m having to restrain myself and not photograph everything I see in one go.

 

I’ve also had some time off, not that this has stopped me from keeping my eyes open for examples to share with the readers of this blog showing the breadth and depth of products being retailed in specially themed packaging.

 

As such, the first packaging examples I’ll share with you in this entry are those that I snapped while on holiday earlier this month.

 

I was taking a leisurely stroll around a boutique shop when I came across this intricately printed carton for Niederegger Lübeck marzipan sweets, featuring Santa Claus, reindeer, a Christmas tree, presents and other images closely linked to Christmas.

 

In my opinion, the choice of a softer color palette for the printing gives the box the impression of being a nostalgic, yet luxury, product, and make it an ideal gift choice this winter.

 

A nearby folding carton for traditional Christmas fudge is likewise printed in fine detail with a complex holly pattern, coupled with metallized elements at the opening.

 

It was the combination of the intricate printing with the metallized carton that really caught my eye, and made the packaging stand out on the shelf.

 

It wasn’t only boutique shops I visited while I was away. We had to pick up some essentials, which called for a visit to the local Tesco.

 

It was here that I laid eyes on the 1m-long carton of Cadbury Fingers. The outer carton is actually used to collate four standard cartons, so to my disappointment it is not a true metre of Fingers, a favorite chocolate biscuit in the Pittman household. Nonetheless the clever use of Santa and his sleigh, with the biscuits being “delivered”, as if presents, highlights the use of themes to take conventional packaging for products available year-round and connect them with annual and special one-off events.

 

Cadbury will feature heavily in this “study” of packaging with a festive theme, as it did during my study this summer and my current mission to find packaging decorated in graphics and images representing Halloween.

 

A range of Cadbury cakes and snack bars have been given a Christmas makeover, including Festive Flake Cakes, whose carton features an elf helping out, as he would when helping Santa prepare toys for children around the world.

 

Elves can be seen on a host of Cadbury confections this winter, and you can see more here.

 

Cadbury Wishes, seen in an earlier blog in a pentangular carton, are also available in high-quality individual flexible packages, themselves retailed in a shelf-ready carton featuring a die-cut star.

 

Cadbury produces a range of advent calendars, so expect to see plenty of those photographed in the coming weeks and months, but the first advent calendar I’ve catalogued in this blog is from Thonrtons.

 

The pyramid shape of the milk, dark and white chocolate Thorntons Continental carton features another intricate design with silhouettes of characters, animals and objects that give the impression of Christmas, love and sharing.

 

The carton design is topped off with a star, one of the quintessential images associated with Christmas, while a bow adorns the bottom of the carton.

 

Fellow chocolate firm Mars is using a green reindeer, wearing a Santa hat, asking for the packaging to be recycled, as seen here on Galaxy and Maltesers cartons.

 

Terry’s Chocolate Orange, a product produced by Kraft, always uses its cartons to promote Christmas.

 

The product is an easy shape to depict as an orange during most of the year, with a vine and leaves printed in the appropriate place on the carton so when viewed it appears to the consumer as if a fruit.

 

However, the shape also gives itself over to other designs, such as that of a bauble or Christmas pudding. Again, the carton is printed in such a way that the die-cut windows portray the chocolate treat within the packaging as something else.

 

Not to be left out, pet food and snack packaging is being given a festive makeover. I’d scoured the shelves over the summer looking for animal food that featured graphics or text referencing the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee or London 2012 Olympic Games, but to no avail.

 

However, I’m quite happy that Whiskas, Pedigree and the like have not disappointed me this time. This winter you can buy your cat or dog a Christmas stocking filled with treats to help them feel part of the family when everyone else is ripping wrapping off presents on December 25, or you can just treat them with Good Boy Festive Choc Biscuit Bones, retailed in flexible packaging featuring the likeness of a snowboarding dog.

 

I couldn’t help but photograph this Santa dog outfit as well. While not printed packaging, it’s an abstract product that further highlights the variety of themed goods available to buy in the modern retail environment.