What the heck is this weird skin flap on Boo Berry?

John Edgar Park wonders, “What the heck is this weird skin flap on Boo Berry?”

I, too, was mystified. I figured it might be something like the skin flap on the watermelon-eating girl my daughter pointed out to me last month. Scott Lawrence figured out what was really going on. Take a look at a previous Boo Berry cereal design here. Compare it to the designs for Count Chocula and Frankenberry. The reason for the “skin flap” on the three characters is clear — its the cheek behind the characters’ protruding lips.

But whoever redesigned the Boo Berry character didn’t understand that, and drew something that doesn’t make any sense. The lip flap has no purpose. It’s a copying artifact. “It’s like a photocopy of a photocopy,” says Lawrence, “all of the elements are there, but they’ve been mangled into something incoherent.” The most amazing part of this is that the art director approved such a massive flub.

Over at Dinosaurs and Robots, we explore the curious phenomenon of excellent old designs being redrawn to look like shit. Take a look:

Canned Mermaid

Antifreeze

Skippy peanut butter

Vogue magazine

Sprite

Lucky Charms cereal

Peanuts