I recall when this happened as I was actively redesigning the entire branding for a nationwide packaged food company at the time (15 different products for abou

I recall when this happened as I was actively redesigning the entire branding for a nationwide packaged food company at the time (15 different products for about $200k - a deal for them and a deal for me and my crew of two). The Tropicana blunder was a great object lesson in why too many cooks in the kitchen will ruin the soup. It's a textbook case of a corporation's marketing department's tendency to shy away from any type of bold graphic for fear of being the person blamed if it fails. The lesson is that failure is guaranteed if you approach a brand design with fear of failure, or fear people won't "get it". If there's one thing meme culture has shown, it's that people are desperate to be talked to like adults who are in on the message. Assuming your customers can't appreciate a metaphor because they're consumer robots is a guaranteed way to lose customers. Assuming they'll get your sense of humor or aesthetics is, of course, a big risk, but that's the job. As far as my role at that time, it worked out well, but the brand really did need a redesign. They were the second largest prepackaged sushi and salad company in the US and their packaging looked like airplane food before. I went in the complete opposite direction, filling each label with layered visual cues and references to what was inside. Sure, I was terrified it wouldn't work. But if Tropicana had approached me at that time and asked me for a redesign, I think I might have told them they didn't need one. Or I would've advocated for keeping their core "joke" because it worked. No one had the guts to tell them to stick with the brand.