However, you see lots of old machinery, presumably imported from wealthier nations, in places like Lima – the printing district there is full of old offset presses, paper slicers, etc. which are surely about 40 years old. For even more expensive equipment like bottling gear, you’d think the economic incentive is even stronger to reuse/repair old hardware. Another consideration is that the pull-tab may be slightly cheaper to produce… but it looks like it’d be the same.

I definitely hear you on the dirty tab issue… in Peru the shopkeepers would always wipe off the top for you.

But in China, there is much dirt in the air and if you put any cans out in the open air, it will soon be covered with a layer of yellowish dirt. I don’t think you can sell many cans of soda with the tugged-in tab.

That’s the only reason. All those 40 year machine theory is just a guess from somebody who has never travelled to a third world country.

The possibility that ~40 yr. old machines are still working is in some ways inspirational. ...can’t really think of many things in my daily life that last that long.

As for the juxtaposition, I meant to illustrate that I thought it odd to see boy-band characters on a pull-tab can where you’d expect to see an old-school “Schlitz-esque” graphic, like this: http://www.chiptin.com/schlitz/history_images/histor16.jpg

However, I think this product is indicative of our current situation: we’re still using 50 year old technologies where we should be expending time and creativity to break paradigms like that of drinking Coca-Cola, from a can, etc. We’re very far from where we need to be, and if we can’t even get this part right, what does this say about our hope for survival?