First, darlings, now that we are all back from our Fourth of July vacations, (and I hope you all had great ones, girls!) it is time to get back to the serious issue of blogging.
The things on learns when one goes food shopping on the weekend. On a recent excursion by David and I , I discovered the horrible way the Land O Lakes Butter box has been transformed.
Now, Land O Lakes has been around since I was a child. But here is the thing. The box always featured the Indian girl, kneeling by the lake. But what made it special was she was holding a box herself, where you could see another box, and Indian girl, on and on into Infinity. I used to be fascinated by this, and when small, would go to the diary department, pick up a box, and stare at it, for minutes on end, to see how far I could see into Infinity. It was a fascinating game, like a puzzle, and I even occasionally played it, as an adult.
Well, now look what has been done. The charm of the original has been dismissed, so all that is seen is one Indian girl, and one lake. No infinity! It ruins the whole thing. Even though I never purchased the product, the fun of staring into Infinity was always there.
Now, I have no idea when this change took place, and how long it has been in place. But I want to hail the one who made this decision as a moron, who has removed the drawing power of the product
When will those advertisers learn to stick to what sells?
Now, here, darlings, is the original Land O Lakes box. See how more alluring it is, with the girl's kneeling posture by the lake, modestly dress, but holding the box that allows one to stare into Infinity? Isn't it more alluring than the newly designed one? Of course! Will sale of the product go down? It is a guarantee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Advertising used to be considered an art. Now, it is just a case of the bland leading the bland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Political correctness edict, dear: that is your answer (as it is to almost every question nowadays). Why?
ReplyDelete1. It is no longer permissible for a commercial product to depict a Native American (esp female) in anything remotely resembling a subservient posture. So right off the bat, the entire kneeling graphic gets cropped so only her proud face shows, and it is made absolutely clear she is NOT endorsing the product whatsoever, but just happens to randomly appear on the package (because tradition, and they can't think of or finance a decent new design).
2. This one is the headscratcher, because I really thought THIS issue would have triggered a wholesale redesign long before the #METOO movement. But apparently it was overlooked by feminists and SJWs until recently:
Cudgel your brain for school memories, RQ: going back decades, messing around with the Land-O-Lakes box was the the first experience schoolboys had with "porn" (un less their Dad had a stash of National Geographics). I forget exactly how, but there is a way to fold the box into a "peekaboo" Advent Calendar, so when you open the little flaps the woman's bare breasts are bared. Something along the lines of her knees are brought upward to her chest, which makes them look like breasts.
You must have been even gayer than me as a child, because the "infinity" aspect never occurred to me (whilst numberless kids shoved the "peekaboo boobies" gimmick under my nose).
ReplyDeleteI have to confess I never thought of the
folding box trick, or even thought of such
a thing. The infinity thing is what
fascinated me. However, I looked at
another box, and figured the latter
out, and you are right? But what did
I know? Or care?