How bad does packaging have to be for a little kid to say, “I can do better” and for everyone to agree? Ask Waitrose, a British supermarket chain, which recently redesigned the label of its Brown Sauce packaging based upon the feedback (“WTF?”) of a 7-year-old child.





Brown Sauce is a traditional condiment served in the United Kingdom and Ireland that is made of tomatoes, molasses, dates, tamarinds, vinegar, and raisins. It’s traditionally drizzled over sausages, rashers, potatoes, and eggs in a hearty English breakfast, and it’s really quite delicious, despite its unappetizing name.

Waitrose’s label had a psychotropic tomato vying for space with two nuggets of cat shit and the decapitated heads of banana slugs.

How did Waitrose choose to illustrate this concept? A psychotropic tomato vying for space with two nuggets of cat shit and the decapitated heads of a pair of banana slugs. (Well, okay, they’re probably supposed to be dates and tamarinds. Not that you can really tell without knowing what’s in Brown Sauce and going through some mental gymnastics.)

The label’s illustration was so mystifying that, as Design Week reports, 7-year-old Harry Deverill wrote to Waitrose managing director Mark Price, saying he had no idea what this was even supposed to be, and offering to draw a new label for the artistically challenged supermarket chain:

Dear Mark Price, I am writing as the other morning I had Waitrose essential Brown Sauce with my bacon sandwiches. I asked Daddy what the picture is of on the label. Daddy didn’t know and neither do I. Please could you let me know. Mummy says I am good at drawing so if you would like me to draw a new picture for the label I would be happy to. Kind regards, Harry Deverill, aged 6.

Waitrose accepted the offer of Deverill, who took out his crayons and drew them a very sensible-looking English breakfast, with eggs, sausages, rashers, toast, and baked beans. You know, all the foods Brown Sauce tastes delicious on. What a revolutionary idea.

[h/t Design Week]