Advertising Students Have Egg-cellent Morning

SUZANNE RAMSEY
College relations staff writer

Madeline Eubanks (left) and teammate Micaela Weiss were happy their egg survived the fall from Fletcher Hall.

Molly McGonegle drops a Wonder Egg from the balcony. It survived intact.

On the morning of April 8, students in Linda Shank’s principles of advertising class embarked on an “egg-cellent” adventure. The goal was to create packaging for an egg that would not only entice and inform shoppers but also would protect it in the event of a mishap — in this case, being dropped from the balcony in front of Fletcher Hall.

Several teams of two to four students participated. The resulting packages included everything from a simple white box labeled “Egg-cellent Eggs” with a picture of a chicken and the slogan “A country taste that will put a smile on your face” to a container that looked more like a banana-yellow piñata than an egg carton.

In an effort to achieve a soft landing, one group strapped a parachute to a shoebox that had been wrapped in pink paper and decorated with silver glitter. Another group, one of several that targeted female shoppers, embellished a green Chinese takeout container with pink polka dots, a picture of an Audrey Hepburn-esque woman and the words “Breakfast for One.”

Molly McGonegle ’10, Melissa Viar ’09 and Meagan Bell ’09 employed a round plastic container lined with egg crate foam, dubbed “New and Improved Egg Crate Memory Foam.” Inside, the egg was housed in a plastic egg that was lined with model clay.

Called “Wonder Eggs,” the wrapper declared, “They won’t break before you get home” and “Never worry about broken eggs again.” There also was a tiny disclaimer indicating there was no guarantee the eggs would remain intact, thus shielding the company from liability.

Buffers for the eggs included cotton balls, toilet paper, foam, expandable foam insulation, bubble wrap and other household items. After the students showed off their packaging, they left their classroom on the third floor of Benedict Hall for Fletcher, where the dropping would commence.

In the end, after being heaved from the Fletcher balcony, all of the eggs survived. The parachute even floated, more or less.

Teammates Madeline Eubanks ’09 and Micaela Weiss ’09 weren’t too surprised that their egg survived being dropped in the pink polka-dotted Chinese takeout container they designed. “We survived,” Weiss said, adding, “We dropped it on concrete a couple of times before we got it right.”