Come on down

I was enjoying a rare lunch at home this morning and fulfilling my duty as an American to watch The Price is Right. There was the typical commercial lineup: Liberty Medical (free diabetes testing supplies!), Colonial Penn (who would have thought I’d be able to get affordable life insurance at my age?), and of course, the Scooter Store (I never expected them to be so nice).

In the middle of all of this came an ad for a product I had not yet seen: Pringles Minis. Apparently Pringles has jumped onto the bandwagon of companies shrinking their products and passing them off as new and exciting. Nothing earth-shattering there.

Except…

They come in a bag. Pringles. In a bag. Their entire marketing history is based on the can. It’s what sets them apart. “Once you pop, you can’t stop!” Over and over, they’ve championed the superiority of the can. The lid locks in freshness. The cylinder protects the chips from crumbling. And of course, once you get halfway down, your hand is too fat to get the chips out anymore.

Without the can, what’s the point?