PACKAGE / PACKAGING

A package can change your mind
about what’s inside. The way white
takes everything away, drains life

but suggests the possibility of purity,
while black adds life back. The stain
of the black mountain cherry triggers

another way of fabricating kirsch
bottles. These two biscuits equal
one meal, woman making drive-by

purchases need to know. Here the bow
is bigger than the box, each one frilly
different, making every impulse buyer

as unique as the scent of her post-
purchase. Cookies can be people
and batteries cows, giraffes and monkeys

depending on the demographic. Focus
groups don’t help much in their bumble
backwards for what they think they like

naturally. What they like is yesterday
and what we sell is tomorrow, clicks
the marketing maven behind the secret

mirror. A still softer shade of blue
for the softener, and yet a darker shade
of navy for the starch. Now we have it

justjust right for our seducing swaybeat
klepto tango: typeface, color, odor,
sizing, stock, gloss, shrinkwrap, identity.