South Africa has some pretty interesting advertisements. Both in the sense that they are appealing to people who are swayed by different messages than in America and because I think they get away with things that wouldnt fly in America. That is really only tangentially involved with what I mean to show in this post. That being said here are two utterly bizarre product labels.
A label for salt. As you can see a boy is chasing after a live chicken trying to pour salt over it. The caption below reads "see how it runs". How did this pass as the symbol and slogan for this company? Not that salt really needs catchy advertising or branding but this doesnt even make sense. Are they trying to sell us on the easy pouring capabilities of the salt while cleverly referencing the strange chicken hungry boy? Surely this boy isnt planning on taking a big bite out of that chicken as soon as he gets it. His strategy is wildly inappropriate, salting the chicken is many steps down the line. All I can think to say to this misguided, salt wasting youth is "youre doing it wrong" but perhaps "youre creepy and stop tormenting that chicken" would do better. Additionally I would hope that this salt company respects its customers more than to think we can easily be tricked into salting the animals while they are still alive in an effort to increase salt usage and therefore profits. And if by chance, one were to be tricked into mimicking the label out of pure curiosity, they would find that while the animals did indeed run away when salted and the container did pour the salt quite well, it just wasnt worth the effort in the end. For shame! Salt is pretty ok though.
Ive found it! Perhaps the greatest label of all time. The product was unexpected but who says baking soda cant have a great label (salt companies everywhere should learn from this find example)? Unfortunately the power is somewhat lessened because I happened to get the foil package rather than the tin but nevertheless. The symbol for Royal Baking Powder is a picture of a tin of Royal Baking Powder. If one were to inspect further, the symbol on the symbol is indeed another picture of the Royal Baking Powder tin and so on ad infinitum. The attention to detail is staggering yet the concept is so very simple. It is a comforting thought that no matter how deep you stare into its soul it will only ever be what it told you it was at the beginning. I wish I needed to use baking soda more often if only to be reminded of ole reliable, Royal Baking Powder.
