Package Design - March 2013 - 18

By Larry Jaffee

O mission’
‘
THEIR MISSION WAS

New beer brand’s packaging
can’t say it’s “gluten-free”

ne in 100 Americans, including
Craft Brew Alliance CEO Terry
Michaelson, suffer from celiac disease,
which is caused by food that contains
gluten, damaging the small intestine lining. After his boss’s diagnosis, the company’s brewmaster, Joe Casey,
researched advances by beer manufacturers in Europe, where the gluten-free
standard is 20 parts per million (ppm).
Casey was able to develop Omission
with a brewing process that uses malted
barley, hops and yeast—gluten ingredients—but the gluten gets extracted,
leaving less than 20 parts per million

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT
All-Pak Trojan, www.allpaktrojan.com
Graphic Packaging, www.graphicpkg.com
Hornall Anderson, www.hornallanderson.com
MeadWestvaco, mwv.com
Owens-Illinois Inc., www.o-i.com
Paciﬁc Adhesives Co., paciﬁcadhesives.com
Rose City Printing and Packaging,
www.rcpp.com

MARCH 2013

(ppm). But the challenge was marketing
the product.
In most states, restrictions of what
can be labeled as “gluten-free” prevented Craft Brew Alliance from being
able to explain on its packaging the product’s very raison d’être. Only in Portland,
OR, where Omisson is brewed can it be
overtly labeled and marketed to those
living a gluten-free lifestyle.
Rentsch called upon the beer company’s branding agency Hornall Anderson to discuss a launch strategy for
Omission. According to Ben Steele,
Hornall Anderson executive creative
director, what at its face might seem an
insurmountable challenge —conveying
the product’s primary benefit without
running afoul of labeling laws—really
wasn’t if Craft Brew Alliance and Hornall Anderson brought an element of
fun creativity to the mix.

Letting fans drive the message
“The reality is if you have a great product, it’s easy to design to it,” says Steele.
“A great product tells its own story. Our
job is to convey it.” To this end, the

agency came up with six “fun, not too
serious” icons that lift away the ‘O’ in
Omission.
These icons receive prominent
placement on the beers’ cardboard carriers, which are manufactured by Rose
City Printing and Packaging. But the
copy was written to steer clear of making an overt gluten-free product claim;
instead it addressed the consumer experience with the brew: “It isn’t just what
we took out, it’s what we left in.”
There’s no overt language claiming
that anything other than a handcrafted
beer is being bought. Not being able to
clearly label the product, Craft Brew
Alliance and Hornall Anderson rely
heavily on word-of-mouth and social
media to convey the message that Omission is for people who watch their gluten intake.
Each package includes a bookmark
directing consumers to Omission’s
Facebook page, where fans attest to the
beer’s great taste.

Package Design - March 2013

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