That’s a Wrap: The Best and Worst Packaging 2019

The That’s a Wrap: Best and Worst Packaging of 2019 results are in!

Thank you for voting in this year’s ‘That’s a Wrap’ Campaign: The Best and Worst Packaging of 2019!

Worst packaging of 2019

This year we had a huge range or entries from lollies to toiletries. Here are your top five ‘worst’ categories:

5 – Child-proof packaging- specifically the push down and turn lids

4 – Jars – glass jars with the vacuum ‘safety button’ lid topping this list

3 – Milk Bottles – both with twist lids, and the half-moon seals, which won the Worst Packaging in 2017

2 – Clamshell packaging

And the winner for the Worst Packaging of 2019 goes to: water bottle lids with the plastic screw cap with a tamper-evident band.

Best packaging of 2019

This year we had two winners.

The ‘stick pack with perforated/tear away tab’ found on the Gaviscon double action sachet.

These sachets have a perforated line to assist in tearing, allowing minimal force and a clean tear (tearing in the correct direction). The texture of the end seals allows for more grip of the packaging. The contrast of the labelling of the word tear, the dotted line and the arrow allow the consumer to easily see and understand the opening directions.

And the ‘injection moulded screw cap with a living hinge’ found on Colgate toothpaste

The living hinge requires minimal force to open and the overhanging tab is large enough to push against to open.

Along with these two winners, we also had the Kellogg’s individual cereal bags as our runner up. These have already been certified as ‘easy-to-open’ and more information can be found here.

For those interested in our 2019 nomination and voting rules that we use to tally the results, please see below.

About That’s a Wrap: the Best and Worst Packaging of 2019

The annual social media campaign is designed to highlight types of packaging consumers have struggled with or found easy-to-open in the past 12 months. Your insights will assist our Accessible Design Division in identifying if particular packaging is becoming easier or harder-to-open over time. Your responses will also be used to educate the packaging industry about your experiences with packaging and hopefully reduce incidences of wrap-rage in the future.

Making a nomination

You can describe a general packaging format like glass jars with metal lids e.g. jam jar, or opening features like an induction seal commonly found on tomato sauce bottles.

ORYou can go into more detail by naming a specific product.

We will then tally the results, and announce the best and worst performers on Facebook in January 2020.

The rules

What does the ‘worst packaging’ mean?

Packaging that counts as the worst:

• you couldn’t open it at all
• you opened it after a struggle
• caused you pain
• hurt your self-opening it
• had to use a tool, like a knife or scissors, to open it
• had to ask someone else to open it for you
• caused you to damage or spill the contents
• caused a brief moment of hesitation, anxiety or fear about opening it due to previous negative experiences.

What does the ‘best packaging’ mean?

We are looking for packaging that is genuinely easy-to-open, not just slightly better then a really bad alternative. We may decide to disqualify and exclude packaging from the final tally, if:

• Packaging still needs a tool to open it, including knives, scissors, grip matts or other creative tools
• Packaging that consumers commonly hurt themselves opening
• Nominations that seem to be not genuine e.g. sarcastic responses or if nominations appear to be made by employees of particular manufacturers or brand owners if its believe they are trying to influence the result.
• You shouldn’t have to struggle with any packaging, but until that happens we want to know what packaging consistently makes your life easier. We may also buy samples of nominations to confirm that they are in fact reasonably accessible.

Other criteria

• You can make nominations through our online form, as well as our social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, as long as we are tagged in it and can see the response. If you prefer, you can call or write to us. Your experiences are what counts!
  • Tag us:
    • Use the hashtag: #bestandworstwrap
    • Twitter: @ArthritisAust
    • Facebook: @ArthritisAustralia
    • Instagram: @ArthritisAustralia
• Each Facebook ‘like’ or ‘comment’ agreeing with a nomination will be accepted as a vote towards that nomination. When nominations are made as descriptions rather then specific product names, we will group the nominations and votes as best as possible when tallying the final results.
• You can nominate multiple products, but only one vote per person will be counted per nomination. In other words you can’t ‘vote’ for your own nomination. Here’s how it works:
  • Amy on Facebook nominates a product, which is then counted as one vote towards Product X
  • Bob comments on Amy’s post in support of that nomination, this will be counted as a vote towards the same Product X
  • Melissa then ‘likes’ both Amy’s nomination and Bob’s comment on Facebook, only one of these reactions will be counted, so one additional vote would go towards Product X
  • Max nominates Product X through the online form, this is counted as one vote towards that product
  • A total of four votes would be tallied for Product X.
• If you specifically name a product and brand/manufacturer in the campaign we will try our best to contact them to let them know a nomination was made regarding their product. If you provide more details through our online form and provide an email address, we can follow up with any additional details needed to make a complaint. We will also ask your permission to share your contact details with the manufacturer so they can contact you directly about your experience. The more they know about the issues the more likely they are to make changes.
• We love to hear stories about your experiences, both good and bad, as we use these to educate the packaging industry about your needs. If you have photos or videos then that’s even better, please upload them and tag us so they can be counted as a nomination. Alternatively you can send the file directly to us at [email protected]
• Nominations will be open for all of December 2019 and the top responses will be announced on social media in late January.
• This is a survey about Australian packaging, so please only participate if you have been opening packaging bought in Australia. If you’re in New Zealand, let us know and we can pass your responses onto our New Zealand counterparts, who are also trying to improve packaging for consumers.