Hershey's dinosaur holograms roam the market

Four holographic patterns showing dinosaurs were available for eight weeks nationwide for bags of eight top-selling Hershey candies. The bags hold 32- or 13-oz quantities of individually wrapped pieces. Holograms adorn both outside and inside of the bags. Outsides carry Hershey's graphics printed over the holographic images. But the insides carry nothing but the hologram, and kids (presumably) are instructed to cut the bags open along dotted lines so they can collect all four versions. The Virtual Image division of Printpack (Atlanta, GA) embosses the holographic image onto coated oriented polypropylene. That film is then sent to Printpack for vacuum metallization. The next step in the converting process takes one of two directions because the bags come in both cold-seal and heat-seal versions. The 3.25-mil heat-seal structure is OPP reverse-printed flexo in six to eight colors/adhesive/vacuum-metallized embossed holographic OPP/adhesive/metallocene-based linear low-density polyethylene. The metallocene, says Printpack, permits a desirable seal initiation temperature as well as adding overall seal strength. The cold-seal version, a little over 2 mils thick, is less complex: OPP reverse-printed flexo in six to eight colors/adhesive/vacuum-metallized embossed holographic OPP. "This is the largest use of holographic packaging for a confectionery product," says Hershey's Mike Kinney. "And the response from retailers has been very positive."