Eindhoven – In 2040, grocery shoppers might be presented a choice: purchase products with advertising from commercial brands or pay more for stripped-back packaging.
Presented at Dutch Design Week 2019, Thieu Custers and Pauline Wiersema explore a potential solution to a time when food and drink prices have skyrocketed, making access to some groceries a luxury. In their Sponsored By © project, the duo speculate a future where commercial entities such as oil and gas company Shell, Dutch airline KLM, or political party VVD instead step up to sponsor healthy diets.
Presented as a typical supermarket shelf, consumers can either choose to purchase products with brand logos and slogans splashed across them – for example, Shell sunflower oil that states 'our oil has never been this clean' – or they can pay a premium for 'luxury' items with a simpler, Accessible Premium aesthetic.
In this possible future, Custers and Wiersema speculate that brands could take a role in our food and drink supply chains, sponsoring products to make them affordable. To learn more about how brands are acting as a force for good in society, delve into the Civic Brands macro trend.