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Industry staves off its critics

04-Nov-2010

Packaging industry champions have defended its record on self-promotion and the environment in the face of criticism from experts in branding and consumer issues. The high-profile legal threat to Sainsbury’s ‘overpackaged’ joint of meat set the scene for a lively debate at the October easyfairs Packaging Innovation Show in London. 


Marcel Knobil, founder of Superbrands agency and self-styled 'brand guru', accused the industry of being "ill-equipped to promote itself and its products". He said: "Until the industry has a voice, and that voice has some volume, then we'll stay where we are."

Dick Searle, president of the Packaging Federation, argued: "If the retailers and packer fillers stopped using [reduced] packaging to sell their products and started talking positively about it, then we'd be getting somewhere."

Environmental consultant Julia Hailes, author of The Green Consumer Guide, lambasted the aluminium industry's record in promoting recycling, suggesting that recently-introduced campaigns "should have started 20 years ago".

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