Clever branding and packaging design can make a world of difference when it comes to communicating a product's attributes and ultimately making a sale. But looks can be deceiving. When it comes to food and drinks, certain tropes are often used to make a product appear cleaner and healthier than perhaps it really is.
One designer is showing just how easy that can be done by giving 'healthy rebrands' to junk foods from Coca-Cola to Cheetos, Nutella, Oreo and Twinkies. His videos have gone viral on TikTok and are highlighting how branding and packaging design can be misleading (see our pick of inspiring packaging designs for brands that got things right).
Matt Rosenman of Cheat Day Design describes himself as a health food branding expert and a guy that loves food and fitness. On his TikTok account, he's been posting amusing videos exposing how junk products can be rebranded and repackaged to update their identities for a more health-conscious age – all without telling any all-out lies.
His most successful video to date shows his branding for a 'healthy Nutella', giving the fatty, high-sugar spread a radical new look that might fool many fitness fanatics. In a video that's received over 8 million views, Rosenman notes that he himself thought of Nutella as a health food for most of his life since it's advertised as a breakfast item.
More videos have followed, many of them by popular request. Other products to get healthy-looking makeovers include Monster energy drink and a healthy Coke, which Rosenman has branded as Thrive by Coke.
As well as being very funny, Rosenman's makeovers are helping to enlighten people about what they're eating in some popular foods, and why we can't always trust brands or their graphic designers.
"I would fall for this with ease," one person commented on the Nutella video. "I now question EVERYTHING I buy because of these videos," someone else wrote. See our pick of the worst design fails for more packaging that hit the wrong note.
