Click photo for larger image.

Old media has been taking it on the chin recently as advertising goes flash, viral and pop. But there are those who have found that an effective way to get attention is to use one of the most staid, lowest-budget marketing tools around: product labels.

Just ask Tom Bihn. The owner of a Seattle business that makes bags and sells them on the Internet gained a certain international notoriety a little while back after a blogger actually read the "care" label on his new bag.

Under the boring stuff about not ironing or using bleach, the label said, in French: "Nous sommes desoles que notre president soit un idiot. Nous n'avons pas vote pour lui." Translation: "We are so sorry that our president is an idiot. We did not vote for him."

The exact decision-making process by which that statement actually found its way onto the label is a bit fuzzy -- Mr. Bihn said he wasn't really trying to get attention, certainly not using his label for marketing purposes. But about five or six months after it first appeared, the label's picture was posted online, the mainstream media picked up on it, and pretty soon Mr. Bihn was taking calls from the BBC, not to mention nasty notes from talk radio listeners.

Ever since consumers first began pulling their own items from the shelves, marketers have struggled to be discovered. Cans and bottles and boxes need to look similar from week to week or shoppers won't find them in the sea of products -- but they also need a way to stick out and garner attention from shoppers inundated with all these images.

Some merchants have addressed this by using odd package shapes; others buy stickers to put on the grocery floor next to their display. But a new genre emerged in the past decade as companies began taking liberties with prime real estate -- the labels on their cans and bottles.

In the late 1990s, Pittsburgh's H.J. Heinz Co. started putting phrases such as "Taller than mayonnaise" on its ketchup bottles, followed a few years later by contests allowing consumers to offer their own witty sayings. Last summer, it went a step further by offering to make personalized labels. By mid-December, 35,000 such bottles had been sold.

	Click photo for larger image.

In 2003, Kraft Foods launched a campaign for its A.1. steak sauce that changed the usually serious product use descriptions found on its bottles. One example starts with the familiar, "Shake well." Then it gets more chatty: "If there's only a drop left, a more extreme form of shaking may be required. Like dancing. Or jumping jacks. You can do it."

Then there's Newman's Own salad dressing, whose labels indicate an unwillingness by that brand's managers to take themselves or their product used by actor Paul Newman as a charity fund-raiser too seriously. The low-fat sesame ginger version has a story on the back panel describing a balloon race, loosely based on some of the actor's past characters, in which Newman's Own flies faster and further than Kraft and Wishbone.

As a marketing technique, quirky labels can work well when a product, or a company, is well established, said Brian Bronaugh, creative director at Strip District advertising agency Mullen. The element of surprise can add a little spice to a relationship with consumers that has lasted a long time. "I like it when companies ... loosen up a little bit," he said.

A label with attitude also can help a niche player break through the clutter. The signature example might be Jones Soda, a bottled drink purveyor in Seattle that wanted to establish itself as something different from industry heavyweights Coke or Pepsi.

Not only does it supply a changing array of new and unusual flavors -- Turkey + Gravy anyone? -- but its labels feature photos supplied by its customers. As the company has grown, so have the offbeat labels, which now include a discussion about how everybody has to make a living somehow.

Clare Bowles, a Jones Soda marketing assistant, pondered the idea of a Jones Soda encased in a traditional look. "I think taking the photos off the label is like stripping the product of its brand, its soul," she said, quickly adding a disclaimer befitting the brand's style: "Not to get too deep."

The fact that more merchants don't go that route -- just walk the grocery aisle to see how straight-faced most labels are -- is proof that it's a risky tactic.

For one thing, it can come off as awkwardly as a parent trying to wear teen styles. More importantly, consumers need to trust what's on a label. Getting cute with a description of the ingredients in baby food, for example, might violate trust built up over years.

	Click photo for larger image.

When Heinz first put the chatty comments on its bottles, the company's consumer line received calls from people saying there seemed to be something wrong with the labels, said spokesman Robin Teets.

For many products, labels are regulated by a government agency in charge of keeping consumers safe and informed. A question sent to the Food and Drug Administration concerning labels was answered with a discussion of the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and its amendment, the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act.

The wine industry appears to be the perfect place for a little bacchanalia, but bureaucrats read all the labels there carefully, too.

In the past decade or so, winemakers have livened up liquor store shelves with colorful designs and oddly shaped labels. If those things don't catch the eye, the words on some of the graceful bottles may. There's Bonny Doon Vineyard's Cigare Volant ("flying cigar") and the distinctive Screw Kappa Napa.

There are exceptions, but labels with attitudes tend to be found on lower-priced wines.

"Humor is a dangerous thing to do," offered Michaela Rodeno, chief executive officer of St. Supery Vineyards and Winery, a Rutherford, Calif., winemaker that commissions edgy illustrators annually to develop new artwork for its meritage wines.

How about a serious wine called Beauzeaux (pronounced yes, Bozo)? "We wanted to show that wine doesn't have to be stuffy but can be fun," said Claudia Schubert, senior director of brand marketing for Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines in Napa, Calif.

Even the French may be loosening up a bit as they seek to improve sales. An American who still eats freedom fries might be willing to try a bottle of Arrogant Frog, perhaps the Ribet Red, from the Languedoc region.

As for that presidential comment tucked into the bag labels, it's still there on the Tom Bihn products.

The company doesn't officially say which president the labels refer to. But the company has a few new things inside its bags, including a "Made in U.S.A." line written in Chinese and the letter W tucked inside a circle with a slash through it.