Are Consumer Products Playing Hard to Get…Open?
Now you have the opportunity to sound off!
Photo by Michael Fenton on Unsplash
The nominations are open. Now is your chance to let companies know how you feel about packaging that affects you anywhere on the scale from annoying to frustrating to inspiring homicidal rage.
As a public service to readers, The EndGame wants to recognize consumer packaging worthy of the coveted Adult-Resistant Design (ARD) Awards. You are invited to submit nominations in either of two main categories: ridiculously difficult packaging, and products that require an advanced degree either to assemble or operate.
Each nomination should include a brief description of what makes the product ARD Award-worthy, along with a photograph. You may submit as many nominees as you feel necessary.
The best reader-selected ARD nominees will be featured here. Companies responsible for award winners will be notified and, hopefully, embarrassed.
Don’t miss this opportunity. Just send your entry by replying to this email or use the Comment feature below.
Go on. Don’t hold back. Responsible parties need to know.
Your Take
Last week’s article about repeating actions that are Beyond their Expiration Date (B.E.D.) drew robust commentary. You can find the full play-by-play here, but here are a few highlights:
“I have always been in waste-not mode. Partly, I’m sure, because my parents also grew up during the Depression, children of poor Irish immigrants….I was taught it’s a sin to waste food, and I had to finish everything on my plate. I felt obliged to follow this rule well into middle age and sometimes even now at 66.
“Let's see. I rewash plastic bags, save every rubber band, also squish the toothpaste to the end, and I have no idea how old my razors are. My mother used to save the string the butcher used to wrap up the paper our meat was in, in a little jar with a hole poked in the top to pull the string back out (a repurposed jar of course.) Remember that along with being children of the Depression, our parents also lived through the frugality of WWII.”
“Years ago I would help hoarders unhoard. The overwhelming amount of stuff - newspapers, food even - never thrown out and moldy or B.E.D., clothes, drivers licenses from 1974, toys and everything else under the sun. Some of all this saving is a sickness - where and when it becomes a sickness is anyone’s guess - perhaps it is a heritable trait and learned, as you say.”
“That saving behavior you ridicule is something I am actively trying to do. Whether or not we can personally afford to waste, it is not kind to the environment to do so.”
“Things that aren’t used up end up in landfills. Poverty isn’t the only reason for avoiding overconsumption.”
“My aunt, who grew up during the Depression, proudly showed me a cardboard belt she'd made - in 2010.”
“I hold a core value of walking lightly (as lightly as possible?) on this earth because we are an affluent country and thus have developed poor consumption habits. I have a hard time throwing away something that is perfectly useful- seems disrespectful.”
“Boy, did this one resonate with me, Don. Funny, when I was much younger and highly critical of my parents, I used to tell myself to ‘take notes,’ fearing of course I’d become like them. Guess what, now I’m in my 70s, and I’ve become sooooo very much like them. We cannot escape, can we? But thanks for the piece. It made me wince a bit even as it made me smile.”
Thanks for all your comments!