Essential Accessories For The Discerning Chap
Our latest ad for Fentimans, written specifically to run in The Chap magazine unearths some of the more interesting accoutrements available to the turn-of-the-century gentleman.
Bill Bernbach Said #36
Number 36 in our Bernbach series...
“A great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster. It will get more people to know it’s bad.”
Read all of the previous Bernbach Said posts here.
“A great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster. It will get more people to know it’s bad.”
Read all of the previous Bernbach Said posts here.
Smoothing-Off Jack Daniels
Earlier this year, Jack Daniels announced that they were updating their label design for their bottles.
I always get a little twinge of anxiety when I hear that classic brands are doing things like this. It's rare see something that looks an improvement on the classic that preceded it. I know there are always reasons within businesses that we on the outside don't get to know about. But mostly these refinements don't seem to serve any purpose other than vanity on the part of those currently in charge.
Also, it's worth remembering that what we consider to be classic designs tend to have always evolved over time (as the advert below illustrates, in the the case of Jack Daniels). So why should we stop evolving them now?
The problems come when the evolution starts to lose what we have come to know as the character of the brand. Part of what gave Jack Daniels its character was the overly wordy label, and the almost unnecessary level of detail. That style is a relic of another time compared to most modern brands and labels.
These days, most packaging is stripped back and refined. Modern branding is smoothed-off and slick. You could argue that it has become quite samey in that way, and devoid of character. JD’s packaging was a reminder that this is a product that preceded the invented brand and modern marketing communications.
The redesign isn’t a massive departure from where they were, and I'm sure that whoever did it (and those who has commissioned it) will assert that it retaines the character of the original. But I'm not so sure. The texture and sheer quantity of information was part of the character, not just the style and colour.
And on a purely selfish level, the new design just looks just that little bit less interesting and characterful on the shelf.
Edited to ad: We quite like the new bottle shape (on the right, below), so it just goes to show, not all change is bad. Probably because it is more idiosyncratic and different to competitors than the old one , which in our opinion is a good thing. And of course, it is the exact opposite of smoothing-off.
I always get a little twinge of anxiety when I hear that classic brands are doing things like this. It's rare see something that looks an improvement on the classic that preceded it. I know there are always reasons within businesses that we on the outside don't get to know about. But mostly these refinements don't seem to serve any purpose other than vanity on the part of those currently in charge.
Also, it's worth remembering that what we consider to be classic designs tend to have always evolved over time (as the advert below illustrates, in the the case of Jack Daniels). So why should we stop evolving them now?
The problems come when the evolution starts to lose what we have come to know as the character of the brand. Part of what gave Jack Daniels its character was the overly wordy label, and the almost unnecessary level of detail. That style is a relic of another time compared to most modern brands and labels.
 |
| Before the latest redesign |
 |
| The new label |
And on a purely selfish level, the new design just looks just that little bit less interesting and characterful on the shelf.
Edited to ad: We quite like the new bottle shape (on the right, below), so it just goes to show, not all change is bad. Probably because it is more idiosyncratic and different to competitors than the old one , which in our opinion is a good thing. And of course, it is the exact opposite of smoothing-off.
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