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Previous: Hair dryer instructions | Main | Next: Mainstays Caulk Remover packaging
May 4, 2007 12:03 AM
Broken: "Too Tall" Chocolate Easter Bunny package
Andrew Sims writes:
Last Easter I came across a very broken packaging design for a chocolate Easter Bunny. I received this bunny as a gift, and the packaging describes it as "Too Tall," and has a basketball theme to go along with the height gag.
The bunny weighs 6 oz (hollow), and is about 7.5" tall, a rather average stature for a chocolate bunny, if you ask me. However, the package is designed so that the ears of the chocolate bunny poke out about 2" above the top of the box.
There is even a speech bubble for the bunny proclaiming, "Oops! I'm too tall for this box!" This is despite the fact that the box is 9" tall, and the bunny is standing on a tall paper platform in the bottom of the box.
In actuality, the chocolate bunny would fit rather comfortably within the confines of the box, so there really is no need for the chocolate bunny's ears to be sticking out.
Not only is this an ineffective gimmick and false advertising, but this packaging also makes it very difficult to remove the bunny from the box since one must slip the ears out of a form-fitting hole in the top flap - a task not easily accomplished without tearing the box or breaking the ears.
That's hilarious! I actually got this bunny for Easter (my nickname in grade school was 'Too Tall') but it got thrown away before I was ever able to take it out of the box. I'll have to show the 'Easter bunny' that gave it to me that they got duped!
Why is this broken again? You nailed it in the last paragraph: it's a marketing gimmick. Just because you think it's dumb doesn't mean it's broken.
Ineffective gimmick? Probably.
False advertising? No, not legally.
The claim that the bunny is "too tall for this box", while not true in the sense that the bunny could - if the packaging was changed - fit in the box, is neither "unfair" competitionally, nor materially "deceptive", which are what counts.
It's a cutesy gimmick. It's not broken. See the top of this webpage? This Is Broken is supposed to be about customer experience, not pet peeves about otherwise harmless gimmickry.
(Especially the complaint about possibly tearing the box while opening it to get the bunny out... so?
It's not like the box is useful for anything else, with the viewing cutout. Tear it. Everyone else does, I assure you.)
I got one of those Easter bunnies too, and thought it was rather broken. It was purchased for me by someone who obviously did not inspect the package closely, as they were suprised at how average sized it looked. There is a little deception there...
Since the product is sold by weight, not volume, I doubt that it could be considered false advertising in a legal sense. It is like a box of cereal which always seems to be half-empty when one opens it. (Strangely enough, cereal boxes are filled by volume.) There is deception here in that one would expect the bunny to actually be too tall to fit within the confines of the box without the cardboard platform. The equipment used to make the bunny is probably limited in how large a bunny it can make. Otherwise, since the bunny is hollow, why not make the bunny taller and charge slightly more for it?
How's it broken? It is another example of a waste of packaging. While not as bad as some of the packaging disasters at Costco, this bunny has additional plastic and cardboard added to create the apparent height difference between bunny and bag.
It should be companies' responsibility to reduce the waste stream, not increase it, so they've broken this one.
Just my opinion. It is cute though....
Wow, what a rip-off. Also, it's WASTING PACKAGING!!! Even then, not all tall...anythings...are basketball players.
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Previous: Hair dryer instructions | Main | Next: Mainstays Caulk Remover packaging
AHH! It shrank!!
Rather amusing actually...
Posted by: ashleyriot_vs at May 4, 2007 02:37 AM