A familiar saw-toothed view of the New York skyline on a product with deep New York roots has quietly been altered. How it came to be changed is a story of corporate strategizing -- and of deciding to ease some customers' painful memories of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Half-asleep coffee drinkers may not pay much attention to what is on the coffee can, but in redesigning its product, Chock full o'Nuts removed the World Trade Center.
For years, the twin towers had stood against a taxi-yellow sky on the Chock full o'Nuts label, as did the Empire State Building and the Citicorp Center. But about a year ago, Chock full o'Nuts decided it was time to do something to set itself apart from brands like Maxwell House and Folgers.
So it added a new flavor -- "100 percent Arabica New York roast" -- and began looking into a makeover. "The existing packaging was a bit antiquated," said Angie Hancock, a brand manager for Chock full o'Nuts, a unit of the Sara Lee Corp. "It definitely resonated with an older consumer but was not doing enough to attract younger consumers."
And, she said, "there was the issue with the twin towers."
They were at the far right of the skyline on the old label. Hancock said that in the days after Sept. 11, "we received calls about whether we're going to change the packaging immediately or not."
By last year, when the company hired market researchers to question consumers about possible new labels, the trade center was "a very polarizing issue," she said.
"It was split 50-50 between people wanting to see it there, and then people wanting to not see it there," she said. "It would either remind them of what it looked like, a sense of nostalgia, or it would be a reminder of a tragedy. We decided it was too divisive."
The new yellow-on-yellow skyline replaced a black landscape and taxi-yellow background, and the buildings are more recognizable than on the old can. The triangle top of the Citicorp Center looks more like itself than the oddly lopped-off old shape, for example.
Chock full o'Nuts began phasing in the new design at the beginning of this year. Hancock said the last of the old-label cans were vacuum-packed in March. The last of those cans are disappearing from supermarket shelves, although some can still be found around New York City.
"We can't control what stock a retailer may have in the warehouse," Hancock said. "It takes a certain amount of time for that inventory to sell through."
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique