"It seemed to be a good idea at the time."

Posted on January 4, 2008 | Permalink

By Lane Casteix

One of my favorite movie lines was uttered by Steve McQueen in the movie The Magnificant Seven when he was asked why he had signed up to protect the little Mexican village from the evil bandito Calvera (played marvelously by Eli Wallach) and his gang, which greatly outnumbered the Magnificant Seven. Steve's character Vin told a story to explain why he had agreed to such a dangerous job for so little pay. He said, "It's like a fellow I once knew in El Paso. One day, he just took all his clothes off and jumped in a mess of cactus. I asked him that same question, 'Why?' He said, 'It seemed to be a good idea at the time.'"

I think Hershey's Candy Company may be saying the same thing right now. "It seemed to be a good idea at the time." They came out with a new product that is packaged like street drugs. It was unintentional (probably), but that doesn't help the negative publicity or mitigate the cost to fix the problem.

The moral of this story is do your homework before introducing new packaging. Package design only looks easy, but it is not a simple process to be left to amateurs. If professionals like Hershey's can screw up, how much trust do you have in the person managing your packaging? And - that is where SPAR comes in. We can help you avoid those kinds of issues.