Pro Carton/ECMA Carton Award

New dimensions

Sustainability in logistics, presentation and environmental protection

The new movie series “Shrek” gave McDonalds the idea of packing 3-D glasses into their traditional “Happy-Meal“ boxes. The briefing for the packaging was close to a “Mission Impossible” – the integration of 3-D glasses into a Happy Meal box without affecting handling in the restaurant. It became even worse: the Van Genechten company had to agree to a lead time of 8 weeks for the production of 12 million cartons.

The concept was created within just one week: a “Happy Meal” box with integrated glasses and a new, patented production method. The requirements were extremely complex. As the glasses were to be used by children, they had to be easy to handle. The lenses had to be suitable for direct contact with foodstuffs, as well as offering transmittance values suitable for computer screens and printed cartons. All health and safety regulations had to be complied with to ensure approval as a toy.

The results were better than purchasing ready-made 3-D glasses in every respect: ease of handling was absolutely convincing. The lenses consist of a thin acetate film and can be recycled with the paper and are thus fully biodegradable. To allow printing on both sides, the lenses are sandwiched between two layers of carton.

Instructions are not necessary and the future is assured: with this new invention, glasses can be integrated into any type of carton at very low cost.