In 1957, an Indian plastic-packaging maker chronicled the happy fate of a hosiery brand that had begun wrapping its products in plastic. The result, he wrote in an Indian daily, was a 65% jump in sales.

Paper, wood, aluminium, tin and other containers had been on the market for decades, but were opaque. “It is well known that when a customer sees what he wants, he is more apt to want what he can see,” wrote G.R. Bhide, an executive at Plastics Packaging Pvt. Ltd.