Have you noticed how the alternative world of food packaging? By alternative, I mean all the new-fangled drinks now available to replace cow’s milk.
The 1950s when all school children had their daily bottle of milk.
When I was a child in the 1950s, milk was an everyday occurrence at all schools. Each day, we sat at our desks, making as much noise as possible, sucking on the paper straws to hoover up the dregs at the bottom of the bottle. We would then fashion the foil tops into flying saucers, zinging them around the classroom. Many years later, when Margaret Thatcher became Education Secretary in the Heath government, she stopped free school milk, prompting the classroom taunt “Thatcher, Thatcher, the milk snatcher”. Two decades later, she regretted her decision. Too late, Margaret.
Back in the 1950s, no one seemed to have ‘intolerances’ – or at least no one mentioned it. At the age of seven became a vegetarian after struggling with the whole concept of eating animals, and most of what I was forced to put in my mouth later went down the loo in secret.
But here we are in 2019 when everyone seems to have allergies or sensitivities or to be seeking alternatives for health reasons. And that brings me to the many non-dairy replacements for traditional milk. We have almond, coconut, soy, rice, oat, hemp, cashew, hazelnut, macadamia and quinoa, and the list seems to lengthen every time I visit the supermarket.
The trailblazers Innocent in their grass-covered van.
In 1999, that quirky little setup called Innocent appeared with their “nothing added, just fruit” concept. They buzzed around London in a grass-covered van, promoting their fruit smoothies. The graphics and packaging had a DIY feel, and the product copy was friendly, funny and, above all, witty. The product took off, the company grew, and everyone loved it. Innocent, in turn, interacted with their fans and had AGMs like a happy family fun day. Then they sold part of the company to Coca-Cola – not a producer of healthy products and implicated in increased obesity and tooth decay. Eventually, Innocent became 90% owned by Coca-Cola, and no doubt, the three founders are sitting pretty. Lucky them. Coca-Cola has expanded the Innocent range and produced bigger bottles. The one-time cute little company is now a cog in a big conglomerate machine.
Innocent's an expanded range, bigger bottles, more profits and more plastic.
Innocent had well and truly established a new way of marketing products to an increasingly health-conscious public, but on a more in-depth investigation, the perception and the reality were often at odds. Magazines started to point out that Innocent-tagged ‘healthy’ products were not so healthy, giving the example of their 250 ml bottle of pomegranate, blueberry and acai smoothie with a sugar content equivalent of three and a half glazed doughnuts (171 kcal and 34.3 g of sugar).
In 2007, Innocent was found guilty of making false health statements and for misrepresenting their carbon footprint claims, so not so innocent after all.
Over the past decade, all sorts of smoothies have crowded onto the supermarket shelves, trying to out-Innocent Innocent. Now we have the ever-increasing phenomenon of dairy-free alternatives. What interests me is their presentation through the graphics and copy.
When these products started to appear nationally, the front-runner was Alpro – they were everywhere. The packaging was and still is horrible, but I continued to buy the product. They are always on all the shelves but now having to rub shoulders with an expanding market of newbies. Take a look.
Oatly is everywhere.
I have tried many of the new arrivals and settled on the Oatly oat milk, the 'Barista'version because it froths up so well for my coffee. The consciously naive style of the design, with its foundation-course-style linocuts, hand lettering and wittily written copy seems to hit a more emotive note for its audience and was created by the brand, design and marketing consultancy Big Fish.
And their ads make for an amusing read.
Looking at the packaging, I imagined some little startup working out of an old farm building somewhere in deepest Dorset. Not a bit of it: Oatly is, in fact, older than Innocent and founded in Sweden, and supply their products to 20 countries throughout Europe and Asia. So clearly not the little operation I had imagined, or rather what the packaging had primed me for. But on the environmental front, they are keen to enable a potential 80 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by convincing all the coffee shops to use Oatly Barista in place of cow's milk. We'll see.
Moo Dairy's attempt to make their packaging look friendly.
Arla's attempt at blending into the health arena.
The whole of Rude Heath's range is utterly banal.
Another newcomer, the Good Hemp company is a little closer to my original imagined vision of messing around in barns and farm kitchens to produce a product. And it turns out to be true (well, so their web site says). Farmers Henry and Glyn experimented with various concoctions, from their hemp seed harvest making oils and salad dressings. They then hit on the idea of creating hemp seed milk. Oddly, when introduced last October, their packaging looked like this:
It was very dull and predictable. But hay presto earlier this year they switched to this.
All hand-lettered and looking like the work of Marion Deuchars?
Big Fish has given Good Hemp the Oatly's treatment. Once again, it has the DIY style with friendly, conversational copy and an emphasis on saving the planet. Their website packed with facts about the founders’ passion and desire to be good citizens. No doubt if they are as successful as Innocent, the big corporate sharks will sniff them out and make them an offer they can't refuse.
Sproud is another Swedish company and has given its product a more modernist feel. It's none dairy, non-gluten and none soy. Made from the pea, is non-GMO and doesn't contain cholesterol or allergens, and low in sugar and fat.
A non-emotional, pharmaceutical design approach to a health product.
It seems these days anything with 'Wellbeing' attached to foods or drinks there has to be an 'Our story' dimension. Remember Deliciously Ella? Well, an almost identical backstory is attached to the Good Mylk Co. It was created by Brooke Rewa while battling food-related health issues. She started concocting juices and almond milk in her kitchen. By drinking her creation, she healed herself as so started 'sharing' it at farmers markets where it received instant success. Her product is now available in the chicest LA coffee shops.
For those wanting to do away with cooking altogether, Huel is the one for you.
It is a high-protein, plant-based liquid meal, again packaged with a minimalist clinical feel, and designed for those obsessive gym dwellers without a millimetre of fat on their tight, tanned bodies.
With all this heightened activity on the 'health' drinks front the old frontrunner, Alpro has just changed its packaging too, as they put it "... a more contemporary look and logo, Alpro’s redesigned product range boast hand-crafted illustrations and front-of-pack nutrition labelling for the first time". But they have still managed to make the packs incredibly dull and no doubt designed by committee with very little evidence of hand-craftedness.
At every turn in the supermarket, there is yet another new product transmitting, 'I am healthy, buy me'.
There was a time in the 80s and 90s when British packaging was surprising and meticulously crafted with design consultancies like Lewis Moberly leading the pack (no pun intended). But all the excess and care of that period has long gone, and these days you have to look carefully before you you can spot anything of real merit.
I first recall being attracted to Dove Farm when spotting this delightful logo.
But the Dove Farm Organics range is undoubtedly one of them. They've been around for a while and yet another company with a 'story'. Founders Clare and Michael Marriage sowed their first seeds in 1977 with the simple idea of making excellent quality flour from their grains. There is no faux naivety about the design of the packaging for their products; it is individual, calm, confident, considered well crafted and charming.
This Dove Farm's flour range puts me in mind of two mid-20th-century greats, David Gentleman and his classic BBC & Broadcast stamps of 1972, and the work of American designer/illustrator
Arnold Varga.
David Gentleman's 1972 BBC & Broadcast stamps for Royal Mail.
London based Studio H designed the range. I think they are the most innovative packaging design consultancy working in the UK at the moment. They have a distinctive fresh style and seem to have attached clients that don't want their customers treated like numb skulls. The Living Food Kitchen is another of Studio H's clients. It has created this elegant solution for these health drinks along with their work for Pure Swiss yoghurt.
The Living Food Kitchen another perfectly balanced range designed by Studio H.
Studio H's design for Pure Swiss hits just the right note of minimalism with charm.
Meanwhile, the rest of the market is a sea of mediocrity with badly plagiarised styles from the likes of Big Fish and Studio H.
Above Sainbury's unsuccessful attempt at apeing the Dove Farm's style
Even the giant Kellogs are attempting to soften their image with a bit of hand lettering.
And the old stalwart Quaker has joined the shelves with a health-conscious makeover.
Next time you are wandering around the supermarket try to seek out the truth of all this marketing aimed at you.
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