graphic design in action

Tonight, as I walked into the candy isle tonight to buy snacks for my late night design session, the first thing I noticed was a tall, thin man with glasses, standing in front of a cardboard prop up for a new Icebreakers gum. He was middle-aged, about 55-60 years old. He stood there, looking at the advertisements on the prop that described the gum. He stood there and looked at the boxes of gum neatly arranged in a checkerboard pattern. He was so intent on digesting the graphic design advertisement in front of him that he did not notice me watching him from 10 feet away.

Well, the advertisement worked. After he had fully digested everything the design had to offer, he reached into it and pulled out a pack of gum and proceeded to the check-out with the two other items he actually came into the store to get.

After he left I went over and tried to understand the design behind this prop. It was so simple. It looked like a 5th grader made the add, but done well. The two types of new gum were Mint "Center," with ginseg and other energy drink type engridents in it that was supposed to center your mind -- think Red Bull. The other was Raspberry "Lift," that was supposed to give you energy.

On the boxes were illustrations of people, that looked like a 5th grader drew them. On the raspberry one, a figure with a huge head was juggling raspberries, the "lift" I guess. On the mint one, a figure with a huge, thin head, wearing glasses had his fist under his chin like he was thinking, and his eyebrows were mint leaves, the "center."

Now, the best part was that the tall, thin man wearing glasses bought the mint box of gum!

I guess older people like the simpler things in design.