Getty Image / Sandy Huffaker / Corbis
HBO, Twitter, and Capri Sun… Three iconic companies who have or are about to make horrible decisions that squander billions of dollars in brand equity. With the former two, changing their names to Max and X might go down as the worst name changes of all-time when HBO and Twitter were iconic. With Capri Sun, word is they are ditching their iconic pouches, the most recognizable thing about the brand, and moving to bottles.
Close your eyes for a moment and try to imagine a Capri Sun pouch. Now try to picture the logo on that pouch and envision what it would look like sitting on a bottle on a shelf in the grocery store or at a gas station. I can’t, and I’ve drank countless Capri Sun pouches over the years but as soon as they drop the pouches and go to bottles it will be just another forgettable product I walk past in the beverage aisle at Publix.
There were rumblings about the rebrand from pouches to bottles recently. Capri Sun even teased something big coming with this Instagram post a few days ago:
Then, yesterday, the popular ‘Snackolator’ account on Instagram that reviews snack foods and breaks news in that realm of the world shared this photo showing what the bottles will look like:
One of the first comments on that Instagram post is from someone saying “I just cried ‼️‼️‼️‼️” which is certainly an overreaction and hyperbolic but it captures the sentiment of how people feel about this rebrand. Nobody wants it. Maybe the brand wants it but there isn’t a single customer out there thinking “man, I really wish I could have a Capri Sun out of a bottle so it tastes a little bit more like hard plastic.”
As you can see above, the new packaging will not require straws. So, in order to cut down on plastic straws they are *checks notes* rolling out hard plastic bottles. That makes perfect sense. This is all a likely response to the European Union banning plastic straws and trying to regain a foothold in markets around the world with similar restrictions.
I’m all for saving sea turtles, I’m Floridian after all, but dang. At some point we have to draw a line in the sand and fight for our right to drink pouches.
What’s wild is Capri Sun has an international trademark on their pouches, a trademark they haven’t hesitated to enforce in the past through legal means. So it is not as if another company could swoop in and say ‘fine, we’ll serve our drinks in pouches now because everyone knows pouches are awesome.’