Editor's note — Look Back is a feature in Produce Retailer that showcases marketing or merchandising from several decades earlier, with observations on what's changed and what remains the same.
When I first glanced at this ad, the pair of pants puzzled me.
Once I saw the accompanying text – “Fill up, not out, with Florida grapefruit” – I had to laugh.
The display also touted grapefruit as “the diet fruit.” It certainly did an effective job pitching the product as a solution for shoppers; in its day, the promotion resulted in a 31% increase in movement over the same week a year prior, according a 1968 edition of The Packer’s Ideas in Merchandising.
Of course, words like “diet” have since fallen out of favor. Instead of referencing a term that might connote deprivation, marketers have latched onto phrases that are more amorphous but more pleasant – “health and wellness” and “healthy lifestyle” come to mind. Feel free to deploy those descriptions far and wide as the time of New Year’s Resolutions approaches!