I recently sent Jen some candy, which I purchased at Target, and we noticed that their packaging is like something out of a small child’s nightmare. The dead eyes and gaping maw of this fiendish apparition are apparently meant to evoke feelings of delight in their customers. Instead it looks like it’s, as Jen put it, “barfing up candy”. It reminds me a little of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man: it looks vaguely cheerful, but it actually wants to destroy you and claim your soul for its own diabolical purposes.
The ghoulish nature of this bag is made even more perplexing by the baffling slogan at the top. “I Want Creamy”? Creamy what? The English as a Second Language students who came up with this might want to note that there’s nothing especially creamy about Double Bubbles and Laffy Taffies…at least none that I’ve ever consumed. The equally cryptic phrase being spewed from the bag’s mouth along with the candy reads “mmm…kidsplay”. Though I’ve never given it much thought, I never would have believed that there was any way to make a bag of candy into a surrealistic bad dream. It took Target to prove me wrong.
June 12th, 2004 - 2:47 pm
This seems to be a growing trend.
I’d noticed some time back that Puffs Tissues started selling boxes of their product decorated with a character called Spongebob Squarepants. The print shows a creature with a pockmarked yellow face, bulging eyes, and a large buck-toothed grin with a lolling red tongue.
Parental units tell me that it’s a character in a cartoon series aimed at the kiddie demographic. It keeps them occupied. Yeah, occupied screaming in terror in the middle of the night.
June 13th, 2004 - 12:39 am
And as garish and bizarre as Spongebob is normally, let’s not forget the promotion of unflattering racial caricatures via “misprinted” valentines:
It’s a conspiracy I tell you!