Fresh From the Field — Reuben and Dan Watson's Send a Sausage

Fresh From the Field — Reuben and Dan Watson’s Send a Sausage

Scrolling instagram one morning late last year we noted some of our DA friends were receiving anonymous sausages in the post. This fresh from the field profiles the fantastic initiative, doing some social good, that has seen a hilariously strong response – designers Rueben and Dan Watson has been inundated by hundreds of orders for not-so-silly sausages via Send a Sausage.

The Brief / project Kaupapa:

What do you do when a global pandemic strikes, and most of your biggest clients are in the travel or hospitality industries and you are left with pretty much no work and a whole lot of time on your hands? You sell sausages online, obviously.
The brief was simple. What’s a product we can sell online that’s so ridiculously random it might just work.

With inspiration from the success of ‘Potato Parcel’ (a potato sending service in the USA) and the Crusaders ‘Catch a Sausage’ competition (where if you catch a ball that goes out on the full at a crusaders game you win a pack of sausages) the idea was formed.

Introducing ‘Send A Sausage’. A website where you can send an anonymous sausage to anyone in New Zealand, seriously.

Also we were very aware that wasting food sucks. That’s why for every sausage we send, we make a donation to KiwiHarvest to supply a meal to a less fortunate kiwi in need.

The Design Response:

The design challenge was to create a brand, a website, and a product that is hilarious for the buyer but also a hilarious experience for the receiver. We wanted both parties to laugh and also ask WTF is this??

The packaging design had to be layered and tactile. A black unmarked courier bag with no return address. An ominous black tube with a sticker that reads ‘Weiner Mail – Special Delivery’ . Inside the tube is an insert card that reads ‘Someone just sent you a sausage, seriously’. Navigating through a web of wood wool filler to find a vacuum sealed sausage.

The result: A weird, random and hilarious product.
www.sendasausage.co.nz