So today by way of subject topic, I picked “drinks which are supposedly good for your health”. For the people who are not overtly conscious about their health, but don’t mind selecting ‘healthier’ options to soft drinks when they are available. I wonder how many people will end up doing something which involves New Media. How did I end up on this subject, you may ask?
Well.
Last week when I asked my sister for a bad design, the first thing out of her mouth was “Jia Jia Liang Teh!”. When I thought about it, I had to reconsider protesting – their ads are terrible, memorable only for their bad-ness, and their product design not much better. I figured it’d be a good place to start this week’s assignment.
Visceral Design: Jia Jia Liang Teh
Definitely, my first reaction on seeing this was “What the HECK is that?”. It’s bloody hideous and looks vaguely poisonous. It reminded me of the black turtle-jelly stuff – I swear the cans look similar. I doubted it was any sort of drink.
My sister assures me that it is quite drinkable, for all that she dislikes ginseng (A notable ingredient, as you can see from the illustration on the can). I can’t quite figure out what the other ingredients are (the ingredients list is far less than forthcoming) but it looks like chrysanthemum and luo han guo.
Part of my initial experiment was to drink this stuff and see what it tastes like, but this can just looks plain suspect. I’ll toss it in the fridge first, and try it later.
Behavioral Design: Minute Maid (Mandarin-Pomelade)
The interesting thing about this one was that after I bought it, I left the drinks in plain sight, and no fewer than 3 people asked me if they could drink this – no one wanted the liang teh, nor the thing which I’ll describe later.
I like Minute Maid, personally. I think it’s a childhood thing. I was so happy when they started distributing their products to Singapore. When I was younger my mother would mix Minute Maid concentrate with Sprite and chill it to serve to guess as a party drink – It brings back fond memories.
It’s pretty pricey, compared to the liang teh, which was under a dollar (this was $1.20). I guess if it’s made with REAL mandarin orange and pomelit (what the heck is that?) JUICE [see illustration], I guess we can afford to pay the premium. There are other bottled drinks like this out there – gatorade, green tea – but I picked Minute Maid becaus… it looked really appealing! Plus it holds its ground, with me, anyway.
I ‘ve tried their other flavors before, the Limeade and Lemon. I can’t quite say I like this one. It’s a smidge too citruscy-sweet – not exactly sour, but somehow biting still. It works, though. It’s not a bad drink – a cut above most other drinks, I’d say, and still somewhat healthy (despite the sugar), although in the cultural context its health benefits cannot be compared to the Liang Teh. It’s pretty easy to use though – I’m glad it’s resealable, otherwise I’d have to drink the whole thing at one shot (Like the Liang Teh, which is anothe reason why I’m putting off drinking a canned drink). It’s also easy to port around, since it’s plastic. This becomes an issue later on, when we move on to…
Reflective Design: Perrier
This is a decidedly pretentious drink. $1.90 for water bottled at the source? Enhanced with ‘natural gas’? With descriptions in French? In real glass and a snazzy metal cap to boot? Ouch. (See Illustrations)
Personally, I hate fizzy water, or whatever it’s called. Water that isn’t still. But still, you have a to admit, that drinking this stuff is decidely posh. If anyone sees you drink it, to begin with.
No one at home wants to drink this stuff, so I think I’ll pass it to Mom, who likes it for the design and prestige. It just makes the rest of us nauseous.
