My 0.02$ worth is that everything you are mentioning above is exactly what you should NOT do.
soften the font a little here, darken the package a little there, make it more general use, play up how it’s safe and effective… that’s exactly the middle of the road position that so many brands fall in, and probably exactly what the marketing brief for the current package said.
If it were me, without doing and further research, I’d suggest you need to go FAR away from the current. Not only does the current look like almost every other antacid package, it also looks like every other package in the pharmacy. If you werent familiar with the product type (i’m not really, never had tums, as or anything like it), and the package was in a different langauge, you could easily confuse it with anything from contact lens cleaner, to toilet bowl refresher to _____?
Light blue, random font, some drop shadows and swirls + a few small print benefits is the recipe for 99% of product packaging out there. To me, it’s says absolutely 0 about any package that uses the same commercial formula.
I’d go the retro route. The name alone feels pretty old school. Play up the kitchiness, and the fact that it’s all about hangovers but nobody ever says it. Allude to it in ads with Mad Men like double entendres. Have a super retro, bold pack that will immediately give it some cred to the young and the old will still associate with it. It will catch on great with hipsters and grandpas alike!
