The sound of food packaging and packaging affects our value judgments about what we are going to eat. For example, if something creaks a lot, we tend to think that it is cooler .
In the field of potato chips, according to a recent study , the louder the bag or wrapper makes, the crunchier they appear to those who eat them. That’s why one brand made the loudest bag ever made .
Frito-Lay
Frito-Lay is the company that decided to apply the effect of the sound of the packaging to the perception of food to unsuspected limits. Their product is called SunChips , although the company eventually removed the packaging as consumer complaints started pouring in.
As Charles Spence explains in his book Gastrophysics , they took one of those bags in the laboratory and measured the noise it made when shaking it with their hands: more than a hundred decibels:
To put this figure in perspective, this is the level found in the loudest of restaurants. Exposure to this noise level for long periods of time can lead to permanent hearing damage. The bag was so loud that many consumers wrote to complain. In reality, it was so strong that the company was forced to offer earplugs to quell growing consumer protests. I guess the idea was for the customer to buy a bag, take it home, and put on the earplugs to enjoy their SunChips in peace.