market comeback. The new package at Coke, of course, is its shaped can, introduced at long last in Terre Haute, IN (see Packaging World, Mar. '97, p.8). (I wonder if Terre Haute consumers can now safely return to the soft drink aisle without fear of being pushed aside by professional shoppers contracted to locate samples for evaluation by the packaging community?) Coke's two-piece drawn, ironed and expanded (DI&E) aluminum canis now also on sale in Tucson, AZ; Las Cruces, NM; El Paso and San Angelo, TX. Soon we'll find out if this remarkable can-making achievement is also an effective sales vehicle. We think it will be. Pechiney's American National Can Co. (Chicago, IL) produces the new cans in its Longview, TX, plant on a system linking as many as three split-mandrel expansion units to the back end of fairly conventional D&I equipment. ANC teamed up with Oberburg Engineering AG (Oberburg, Switzerland) on the expansion technology. While few specific details of the process are being released by either firm, industry technology analysts believe what ends up as a shaped can with a wall diameter of 211 at its widest starts out as a 209 shell. The contour can stands 1/4-inch taller and weighs about 8 to 9% more than Coke's newest straight-walled can, by our calculations. A paperboard wraparound six-pack from Mead Packaging Div., Mead Corp. (Atlanta, GA), permits four of the six cans inside to protrude from the corners and put their best faces forward (see photo). Visually, the shaping of Coke's new can is subtle enough to go unnoticed from a shopping distance of more than four or five feet. But at closer range, its distinctive form begins to work sales magic. "Cool!" is the almost universal reaction of the dozen or so Generation Xers who've seen my sample can up close. And, once in consumers' hands, the impact of its shaping is fairly electric. This can feels different. It invites consumers to trace its subtle contours, eloquently communicating through the intimate language of touch. Here is a soft drink container that can be identified-sight unseen-from the bottom of an ice chest!
