Food Packaging
Beverage containers showcase innovations in packaging design
Mountain Dew cans use hidden-message ink for "Game of Thrones" promotion
Color-changing ink gives a magical effect to Mountain Dew’s special cans for “Game of Thrones.”
Photo courtesy of Mountain Dew
Eliminating some plastic from the screw top reduces 2-liter bottle’s weight.
Photo courtesy of Kirin Beverage Co.
Mountain Dew has given fans of “Game of Thrones” a gift: all-white cans that reveal at cold temperatures an image of Arya Stark’s kill list.
Using color-changing ink that has been tried by others over the years, starting with Coors in 2007, Mountain Dew dropped its green-and-yellow logos for the limited-edition cans. Instead, they’re brand-free and icy white at room temperature. When the cans get cold, the temperature-sensitive ink reveals a list of people killed or to be killed by the assassin Arya Stark, a tie-in with the HBO series’ eighth and final season.
PepsiCo didn’t sell the cans, instead asking people to post on social media what they’d sacrifice to win one using the hashtag #ACanHasNoName. Arya gives up her name as part of her training.
Fans said they would give up smoking, coffee, their long hair and even their pets for one of the small-batch cans.
People used clues to find coins in Los Angeles and New York City to unlock “Iron Vending Machines.”
In the end, Mountain Dew gave away 1,000 cans, according to the official rules.
On Twitter alone, people watched a short promotional video showing the can design and the ink reveal millions of times.
Hiball and Jolt energy drinks have used the thermochromic ink too, and Johnnie Walker had its own “Game of Thrones” promotion last year for whisky bottles that showed the series catchphrase “winter is here” at freezing temperatures.
A company offering specialty inks, Chromatic Technologies Inc. in Colorado, works with a variety of food and beverage processors to add color-changing features to packaging.
Besides temperature-activated inks, CTI has glow-in-the-dark inks, sunlight-activated photochromic inks, and reveal inks that hide a message until the person drinks a chilled beverage.
Another drink development: a lighter 2-liter
Kirin Beverage Co. reduced the weight of its 2-liter bottle in Japan by using less plastic in the screw top. The weight went down to 28.3 grams, compared with its previous version at 28.9 grams. The company’s research arm shortened and narrowed the screw thread. The company says the PET bottle used for water is now the lightest of its kind in the country.
Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!
