{"id":314,"date":"2014-01-25T02:02:42","date_gmt":"2014-01-25T02:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/ephemera\/?p=314"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:07:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T01:07:49","slug":"the-prawn-cracker-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/the-prawn-cracker-box\/","title":{"rendered":"The prawn cracker box"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

This box for prawn crackers from China is a wonder. That prawn looks like it could sink a battleship, and whoever thought up Pandaroo deserves a medal. When Australia finally becomes an outlying province of The People\u2019s Republic of China, I vote that we adopt the Pandaroo logo as our new coat of arms (I will have a vote, won\u2019t I?).<\/p>\n

As a piece of packaging, it highlights how far today\u2019s carton printing has come \u2013 as in, this is what it used to be like. It is a fairly basic four-colour print job, no special foils or varnishes. I doubt if it has been brand-tested to within an inch of its life. It includes just the barest of information, sufficient to meet regulatory requirements. There\u2019s no danger of information overload in terms of spurious health claims, environmental boasts, recipe suggestions or website addresses.<\/p>\n

\"Cracker<\/a>
Meaningless green logo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The only nod towards current environmental concerns is a rather meaningless green logo on the front which could be anything but which most likely means that the box can be recycled. I don\u2019t reckon it\u2019s making any great claims in terms of sustainable production. A couple of other logos on the other side indicate that it has been certified by UKAS<\/a> for quality assurance and food safety (phew!).<\/p>\n

I was going to call it retro packaging but that implies a self-conscious harking back to an out-moded form. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything calculated or ironic about this box. It\u2019s not trying to be something else.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why I like it. The great burden of today\u2019s packaging is that it must stand out on the shelf \u2013 shouting, shining, dazzling, alluring. Some brands do it by being iconic, unique, instantly recognisable. The prawn cracker box does it without even trying. There may not be any special effects to catch my eye but I\u2019d know that daggy old MCY gradient anywhere.<\/p>\n

Now I wonder what you\u2019d get if you did cross a panda with a kangaroo\u2026 A stripy jumper?<\/p>\n

\"shredded<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This box for prawn crackers from China is a wonder. That prawn looks like it could sink a battleship, and whoever thought up Pandaroo deserves a medal. When Australia finally becomes an outlying province of The People\u2019s Republic of China, I vote that we adopt the Pandaroo logo as our new coat of arms (I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-packaging"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1071,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/1071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_paper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}