The
Times article refers to an article published in the Journal of Marketing that studied consumers and interaction with product packages.
"When buying products whose selling point is richness or weight, consumers like to see the product image at the bottom or the right of the packaging"
"products that are supposed to be healthy or light — like low-calorie cookies or hand-held video cameras — do better with images at the top of the packaging, or on the left"
Credits to Ernst Dichter for the title of this article. Ernst published a book by the same name in 1975.