Soon, a packet of Maggi, Kitkat or Nescafe coffee that you pick up at the store will sport a mask over the logo. Packaged foods major Nestle India is changing the packaging of its core brands Maggi, Kitkat, Nescafé, and Everyday in a bid to promote the importance of masking.
These changes are now being implemented at the company’s factory lines, and the product with the new packaging is expected to hit the market in a few weeks.
Nestle India said the idea is to leverage the power of its iconic brands to spread greater awareness of the importance of masking.
"To remind all of us and to create awareness on this very important safeguard, we have commenced work towards tweaking our product packaging that will see our iconic brands masked up," Nestle India said in a statement. This will also be followed by a print and digital campaign aiming to inform consumers about these changes.
Nestle joins several brands such as Vodafone Idea, Dunzo, Coal India, Zomato, MakeMyTrip, among others that integrated masks into their logos last year during the first wave. While some brands ran it temporarily, apps of some like Dunzo and Urban Company still sport a mask over the app logo, while Oyo has a sanitiser on its logo.
Nestle's new campaign comes after the company launched an advertising campaign for Maggi noodles in June, to reassure consumers about its products after reports emerged that a large part of its food and drink products are ‘unhealthy’.
The company ran print advertisements assuring customers that its products are of high quality and asked customers to reach out to the company as well. It had also clarified to CNBC-TV18 that the reports quoting the analysis only cover about half the global sales since several prominent categories were not included.
Nestle’s bid to spread awareness comes at a time when the country to bracing for the possibility of a third wave. The R-Value, or the reproductive number of COVID-19, which is the average number of new infections generated by one infected person, has been worrying experts, with the union health ministry raising an alarm over the R-Value of eight states. India reported 28,204 new COVID-19 infections over the last 24 hours, with the cumulative vaccination coverage crossing 51 crore on Monday.
