That’s a Wrap: The Best and Worst Packaging of 2020
The results have been tallied from our annual ‘That’s a Wrap’ campaign and we are excited to announce the winners.
Worst Packaging of 2020
As usual, the ‘Worst Packaging’ category continues to be the most popular nomination category of the campaign, where stories of wielding knives and having loved ones or pharmacist help open wrap-rage inducing packaging horrified but did not shock us. The worst offenders of 2020 were:
5. Clamshell packaging
4. Ring-pull tin cans
3. Milk bottles – with twist lids and the half-moon seals, which also won the Worst Packaging in 2017
2. Medicine packaging – Push through tablet trays, also known as blister packs
1. Medicine packaging – Push down and turn child-resistant bottles
This year we are excited to announce that the Therapeutic Good Administration (TGA) has allowed us to have medicine packaging join our Easy to Open certification program. This means we will be testing medication packaging and certifying those that are accessible to the arthritis community – hopefully making access to your medications a little less enraging!
Best Packaging of 2020
Although we appreciate nominations that include “better than” a horrible alternative, we do investigate nominations and sadly this year none of the nominations met our minimum standards to be crowned the ‘Best Packaging’. Yes, our standards might be considered high, but our consumers deserve packaging that doesn’t produce pain, frustration or discomfort.
We did receive two nominations which we are giving the title of ‘Honourable Mention’, although they still need further improvement to not cause discomfort:
- Chemist Own paracetamol packaging – which was described as having a more flexible plastic tray and thinner foil to allow you to apply minimal pressure to push the medication out
- Mi battery branded clamshell packaging – which its nominator noted that it didn’t require any tools to open the two halves.
What’s Next
Your stories continue to make waves. Each nomination and comment helps push the conversation forward, showing industry leaders that packaging isn’t just a design feature; it’s an access issue. The next phase of the campaign will involve us reaching out to companies whose products were nominated, both best and worst, to share these insights and advocate for meaningful, user-centered changes.
Together, we’ll keep advocating for changes that make packaging safer, easier and more inclusive.
What does the ‘worst packaging’ mean?
- 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?
- genuinely easy-to-open, not just slightly better then a really bad alternative.
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.
About That’s a Wrap
Our annual campaign to highlight both good and bad packaging designs. Your voices help drive change in the packaging industry and assist our Accessible Design Division to educate the packaging industry and determine if packaging is becoming more user-friendly or increasingly difficult over time.