Honey Monster Puffs “gets rid of design nasties” to reflect drop in sugar

The cereal with the well-known yellow, fluffy monster has been rebranded, taking on a more “natural” look to reflect a new recipe bringing it just below the “high in sugar” boundary.

Cereal Honey Monster Puffs has been rebranded with a more “natural” look to reflect the fact it has reduced its sugar content by 25%.

Studio Robot Food has completed the rebrand, dropping the “warning sign-esque” red logotype, for a flatter yellow and white one.

The packaging design has also been stripped back, replacing the photographic style with a more illustrative one. The sky and grass imagery has been removed and replaced with a light blue background, and an entirely blue, white and yellow colour palette has been incorporated.

The brand’s yellow monster is still central to the branding, but has been redrawn to have a “naïve, storybook feel”, says Robot Food senior designer Mike Johns.

“We thought the honey monster was a bit creepy, so we took away the realism and modernised it,” he says. “The character still engages by looking at the consumer, but we’ve made it more personable.”

This illustrative style carries through to the back of pack, where images depict the ingredients used to make the cereal, and there are “tongue-in-cheek” jokes to “interact” with consumers, says Johns.

The main aim of the design is to make the brand look “more natural and organic”, he says, which reflects the cereal’s new recipe. It has reduced its sugar from 29g per 100g to 22g per 100g, taking it just below the boundary of being “high in sugar”, which is 22.5g per 100g, according to the National Health Service (NHS).

The reduction moves Honey Monster Puffs from red to amber in the traffic light coding system used on food packaging. The recipe change follows a name change for the brand, which was previously called Sugar Puffs.

“We’ve got rid of the nasties from the design and made it purer and more natural, with less computer-generated imagery (CGI),” Johns says. “We feel we’re allowed to do this thanks to the new recipe with less sugar. The main thing was to modernise the dated design.”

Johns says that the new branding and packaging aims to target the brand’s “core consumers” of children, but also hopes to reach a “wider audience” of adults.

The Making Of Honey Monster Puffs from Peepshow on Vimeo.

Consultancy Peepshow was also commissioned to create an animation to go alongside the rebrand.

The new branding and packaging rolls out nationwide in stores and online from April.

The previous branding and packaging
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Comments
  • James Souttar March 28, 2017 at 10:09 am

    This just says everything about how home counties tastes have come to dominate creativity in the UK, in the same way that home counties values now dominate British politics. It’s sentimental, backwards-looking, childlike, kitsch: just like a John Lewis Christmas advertisement. And it gives us a glimpse of the style of Brexit Britain, even before Article 50 is triggered.

  • tim masters March 28, 2017 at 10:23 am

    I like the redesigned packaging. It looks great. But have always felt uneasy about Sugar Puffs’ rebrand to Honey Monster Puffs.

    I don’t know if the recipe has changed again since its earlier name change, but back then 2% of sugar was taken out of the ingredient mix while 20% honey was added back in. Yes, honey is a natural product, but it’s still just another sugar (albeit unrefined) so the healthy eating thing seems to be slightly deceitful to me.

    This isn’t any reflection on Robot Food’s work on this, which is nice. It’s more to do with a conflict I have in my head about our (designers’) place within some areas of commerce and industry.

  • Marion King May 19, 2017 at 9:37 pm

    “We’ve got rid of the nasties from the design ….” And you’ve put another nasty in! How on earth did this design manage to make it from the drawing board to the supermarket shelves with that aberrant apostrophe in ‘What type of bee can’t make IT’S mind up’?

  • Hannah May 20, 2017 at 1:55 pm

    My inner 7 year old is very angry that he’s not very fluffy.

  • chris lawrence May 25, 2017 at 9:54 am

    Have just purchased new reduced sugar monster puffs and tasted it for the first time …yuk.. tastes just like eating cardboard, so wont be buying this again

    • TonyD February 8, 2018 at 11:29 pm

      Couldn’t agree more. I liked the way they used to stick together and glistened with the sugary coating. Now, even after adding more sugar they don’t taste right. Texture is also yuk!

  • Adrian McManus June 26, 2017 at 9:25 pm

    Appreciate what you are doing for the consumer reducing sugar content but It now tastes like supermarket own brand at premium price level.
    Will not be purchasing in the future.

  • martin butler August 5, 2017 at 6:54 pm

    Do not like the rebranding was looking on the shelf and thought this was an own brand. Not the iconic image we are used to. Appreciate need to reduce sugar but to rebrand too !!! i left the shop buying another cereal instead.

  • maureen stevenson August 24, 2017 at 2:04 pm

    I totally understand the reason you have taken the sugar out. but it taste rotten now, the puffs are smaller too. bring back the old brand and packaging. wont be buying them again.

  • simon August 30, 2017 at 8:34 pm

    As said above tastes like cardboard ,needed to add honey to get a bit of flavour,thrown the rest of the box in the bin,will not be buying again.

  • Mrs a foster October 1, 2017 at 11:15 am

    I’ve been buying sugar puffs for years and will not be buying them anymore you should have left well alone.

  • G Summer October 17, 2017 at 9:37 am

    I can understand reducing sugar content but now there is no taste, bland and sugar puffs are smaller, unfortunately won’t be buying anymore.

  • AliD November 12, 2017 at 3:49 pm

    Just had Sugar Puffs for the first time in years. Highly disappointed with the new taste, annoyed that the world is conforming to no added (or lower) sugar and won’t be buying them again! If I was worried about the sugar content of things I’d stop eating them!

  • J K H December 28, 2017 at 3:04 pm

    I’ve bought them occasionally over many years. I’ve just bought a box now, the first one in a few years. How unfortunate – they’re unpleasant now, nothing to commend them at all – the whole point is gone. I won’t be buying any more, and I doubt I’ll finish this packet. Nothing attractive about them. What a shame – ruined them!

  • Gail Smith February 13, 2018 at 4:31 pm

    Have just bought a packet but they are not the same don’t think I will be buying anymore

  • abbs May 2, 2019 at 7:01 am

    was so looking forward to eating REAL SUGAR PUFFS on my return to the Uk but alas someone decided to go healthy and make it as tasteless and unappetising as the run of the mill cheapo puffs! And they took away our beloved honey monster, why? who did he offend for goodness sake! if people want to eat healthy let them have that choice, the buyer is an adult after all!!! (mostly) I mix my cereals for the healthy options and then I treat myself to sugar puffs and now ……… I shall not be buying them again. I would rather eat a store brand at least they have some flavour! thanks for ruining yet another good thing!

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