Even though I’d had a heads-up that Tropicana has changed its carton, it still took me by surprise.

Yesterday, as I was walking through my local grocery store, the display caught my eye.  At first glance, the display looked empty.  The individual carton doesn’t look that way, but the combined effect of a couple of end shelves filled with them gave that impression.  I stopped to look, and then realized this was the new Tropicana.

I liked the old carton fine.  The instant recognition of a premium brand actually makes shopping easier.  There’s enough with checking the date on the carton and to be sure it hasn’t been opened or damaged in transit without having to hunt for the brand.  It’s nice to be able to automatically reach fro the brand, while searching dates and examining the carton.

But with this new carton, that’s no longer the case.  At least until the consumer retrains herself to reach for this new carton.  Assuming the generic juices won’t follow suit and all soon look like Tropicana.

Yes, Roberta Rosenberg (The Copywriting Maven) is right:  it looks like a generic brand.  But not generic juice.  It reminds me more of generic canned vegetables.  I’m at a loss to explain the new package.  Tropicana’s explanation left me still wondering: Why?  You can read it yourself here.

I also noticed the new Pepsi bottles and cans have a similar feel.  Which got me to thinking …

Is generic the new branding?

And what does this mean for marketing?  Will branding be a thing of the past?

With lines seeming to blur between the policies of political parties, and now between premium and generic brands, is this a step towards the universal conformity George Orwell so eloquently cautioned about in his book 1984?

I hope not.