Packaging is the ultimate vehicle for design: industrial, graphic, and typographic design are all put to the test to create an impression so meaningful that it converts currency into consumerism. This ...
If there were an Academy Award presented for packaging, this year’s unanimous recipient would be U.S. canmakers—the lot of them, in fact. What’s so ironic about this segment of old-economy packaging suppliers is that their performance during the past year has been much less a drama and every bit the action adventure, the genre in which the underdog, no less, prevails.
A year ago the Can Manufacturers Institute publicly announced the can segment was, quite frankly, done being glass’ and plastic’s whipping boy: a less-than-subtle reference to a decade of decline in the use of cans in the U.S. market and loss of share to glass and plastic conversions.
During the past several years, no matter if it was iterated at the Can Summit, overheard at MetPack, or mumbled at a format-neutral event; canmakers were near droid-like in their rote responses: “We’re as economical as glass; we’re as versatile as plastic; blah, blah, blah, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah.” It was always, “Metal is as good as …” instead of, “Metal has the distinct advantage of….”
It would appear from the canmakers’ most recent responses that they have not only rewritten the script, but are aggressively seeking leading roles in fast-paced niche segments of the U.S. market.
And the nominees are:
Easy-open ends
Introduced into the European bev can market as pop-tops and ring-pulls in the 1950s, EOEs matured in the early 90s as full-panel tops for pet foods and went mainstream soon after for human foods. U.S. consumers are now pulling ergo-friendly and readily recyclable EOEs off such products as on-the-go soups, fruit cups, ready-to-eat meals, tunas, and a host of other food products. It is estimated that one-third of all human and pet food cans in the U.S. are currently using EOEs, with application growth rapidly accelerating as fillers and co-packers adopt them as an industry standard.
A cool drink of water
PET-bottled water is baffling enough to me, so of course let’s introduce water in a two-piece, 8-oz. aluminum can.
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