Jeff May

Getting all fired up with creative crossover packaging / Jeff May

Fire logs come in a surprisingly diverse variety of shapes, sizes and aromas. They can serve multiple purposes—albeit they are generally used for igniting wood fires, heating homes and ambiance—and they can be made from different materials like compressed hardwood, recycled hardwood, sawdust and wax, and recycled wax boxes. With so many choices at the hardware store, standing out is not an easy feat. However, a little inspired cross-marketing and packaging creativity goes a long way for the KFC-branded Fried Chicken-Scented Fire Log. Packed tight in a sturdy paperboard box colored in the familiar shade of KFC red, the rectangular brick also features the familiar white stripes off to the side and, of course, the iconic drawing of the bespectacled Colonel’s cheerful and slightly mischievous moustached smile, along with the promise of his divinely chosen 11 Herbs and Spices used in this unconventional KFC recipe. The other three panels of the box provide relevant safety information for burning, some cool ideas for where to enjoy your fire log, a pointed suggestion that some actual KFC chicken would go well with the fire, and a cheeky disclaimer that the log itself is actually not made from real live chickens. Burning cleaner and longer than wood, while helping to reuse discarded packaging from other products, the logs are manufactured for

KFC by Enviro-Log, which operates a network of purpose-built recycling and manufacturing facilities dedicated to recycling the boxes and manufacturing logs from them. Working with produce leaders, grocery retailers and recyclers, the Enviro-Log process saves tens of thousands of trees from being used as firewood and millions of pounds of

WOCC from going into landfills every year. Although I initially bought the log for the ambiance, I chose this particular one for the packaging and, as a reward, I also got to enjoy the distinctly unique fried-chicken scent that, alas, disappears soon after the log has been lit up.

For hashbrown fans, the Golden Grill Hashbrown Potatoes are a great product to From top clockwise The KFC Fried Chicken-Scented Fire Log made from recycled waxed boxes; the jar of Bomba Italiana picked garnishes made to resemble miniature Molotov cocktail; a gabletop carton of dehydrated Golden Grill Hashbrown Potatoes.

have around. Produced by Basic American Foods, I noticed them in the canned vegetable aisle because they stood out on the shelf by virtue of being packed in a gable-top carton usually use to pack a 500-ml serving of milk, cream and other like dairy beverages. Instead of milk, however, the carton contains 119 grams of pre-shredded dehydrated potatoes that, unlike their frozen counterparts, do not require any refrigeration and can be stored in a pantry alongside other canned vegetables, with the promise of a similarly lengthy shelf-life. The front and back of the carton are mirror images of each other, with the upper portion featuring gold lettering of the brand name and the product name in both languages, along with the 100% Real Potatoes declaration and a black-and-white GF (Gluten-Free) certification symbol. One side panel carries the required nutritional information, while the other features instructions for preparing them, which is another stroke of genius in its own right. Not only is this milk-carton container a great differentiator on the store-shelf and a tidy storage solution, but it is also used in the preparation of the product, which only requires the consumer to open the carton, fill it up with water, and put it aside for a while to hydrate the contents. Once the hydration is complete, the carton is drained and the potatoes are ready for the frying pan, with the emptied container ready for the household recycling bin.

The condiment aisle at the grocery is a crowded place indeed, where massive competition amongst varying tastes and cultures creates a packed house of ketchups, BBQ and steak sauces, salsas, hot sauces, mustards, relishes, pickles and other toppings where product packaging is critical to swaying a consumer’s purchasing decision. And sure enough, the Bomba Italiana jar of spicy Calabrian red hot peppers, eggplant, mushrooms, dried tomatoes, herbs and natural aromas soaked in olive in oil gets full marks for daring packaging innovation and product presentation. The glass jar is wrapped in a beige paper label that starts out tight just above the bottom of the jar—exposing the bottom of the jar’s contents—and is gradually loosely overwrapped toward the top, where a thin paper ribbon is twisted around a little red paper dowel to resemble a wick for a bomb. Topped off with a clever graphic of a Calabrian chili with its stem lit up like the fuse of a dynamite stick, the package looks like a miniature Molotov Cocktail or an elaborate firecracker—projecting ample warning about the fiery nature of the hot spicy products inside. Once the extra trappings are removed, the package becomes a standard resealable glass jar offering all the usual benefits of preserving the purity, flavor and freshness of whatever is contained in it, while always remaining virtually infinitely reusable or recyclable.

JEFF MAY is a freelance writer and musician living in Halifax, N.S.

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