No, You’re Not On Drugs – But Is The Hemp Dream Packaging?

If one of the biggest obstacles for your brand was that people mistakenly associated your product with banned narcotic substances, wouldn’t you try to distance yourself in any way possible from that relationship?

Hemp milk is increasingly popular with Americans as a nutrition-packed, allergen-free, non-dairy alternative to milk, with total sales that industry executives put at more than $10 million a year, split mostly among the four biggest brands. And they consistently say their biggest challenge is to make consumers understand that the hemp seeds used in the beverages are in no way connected with “rope” or “dope.” The seeds don’t contain THC, the active ingredient in marijuana (it’s in the leaves – of course), and the plant’s stalk is used to make rope.

But it appears as if the packaging folks at Hain-Celestial just couldn’t help themselves with the front of Hemp Dream, one of the segment’s big sellers. Why does Hemp Dream bear a design on the front packaging that resembles nothing so much as a tie-dyed t-shirt, rendered in psychedelic colors that might just be reminiscent to many consumers of a drug-induced haze? All the other beverages in the Hain-Celestial Dream series – including Soy, Almond, Rice, and even Kidz Dream – bear conventional images such as a drink being poured into a glass.

In response to a query by brandchannel, Hain-Celestial sidestepped the question about the reasons for the color scheme of iridescent pink, blue, green and orange on Hemp Dream’s packaging.

“Our primary objective with all packaging is to have strong shelf impact,” said Elaine Giordano, associate brand manager for the company. “Over the past 18 months, the non-dairy category has seen tremendous change with the influx of new … beverage options including Almond and Oat. In developing the Hemp package we wanted to break through at the shelf announcing this new non-dairy option that is a natural source of Omega 3 and Omega 6 Essential Fatty Acids."

Meanwhile, Hain-Celestial’s motives remain a subject of rampant speculation in the hemp-milk industry – and not all of it is light-hearted.

“We don’t want to judge someone for how they market their products,” said an executive for one competing company. “They’re trying to have fun with it."

But Erika Bruhn, marketing director for Living Harvest, another big producer, complained to brandchannel that references to marijuana are “all you hear in the media” about hemp milk. “You hear ‘hemp’ and then ‘ha-ha-ha!’"

Of course, Hain-Celestial’s detractors may not want to throw too many stones. Their packaging may be more conventional than Hemp Dream’s, but Tempt, the new name chosen by Living Harvest for its hemp milk, and Hemp Bliss, the moniker selected by Manitoba Natural Foods, could suggest their own snickering allusions to that other part of the hemp plant.

Can Reefer Madness Hemp Milk be far behind?