If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives): snack foods

Showing posts with label snack foods. Show all posts

Edible Instagrams! Your Pics On A Marshmallow Are A Sweet Idea from Boomf.

Thanks to my friend Scott, I now know that London company Boomf has come up with the idea of printing your Instagram photos on sweet, squishy completely edible marshmallows!

above: Photographs by Maja Smend, food styling by Kim Morphew, prop styling by Lydia Brun

A new fundraising initiative from the Art Fund encourages art lovers to create edible masterpieces with all funds raised going toward helping UK museums and galleries.

A classic Halloween prank is to TP (toilet paper) the front yard of unsuspecting victims. But with today's on-edge society, you may get shot. That said, here's a safe and fun alternative for you, created by ad agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners. Cheetos' interactive "Chester's Project TP" uses Google street view to help you target your victims. Simply put in an address and watch the fun unfold.

Chester, the Cheetos Brand icon and spokeman (spokesanimal?), flies around in a helicopter spouting some funny-over-the top copy as Google maps locates the address you chose. Once you confirm the 'target' of your cyber-hijinx, bombs away... and the chosen location is digitally tee-peed. You can then share it via all the usual social media channels or as an email.

To show you how it works, I engaged with it and then took screen grabs of each step for you:

Fun branding idea to remind you that snack food out there amongst all the candy during this time of year. Now, it's your turn.

Cheetos Project TP

Gum In Grenades And Burberry Plaid. A Great Idea In Need of Better Branding - Paul Stiven Luxury Chewing Gum.

I love the idea of a luxury chewing gum brand. And there is one. Italian designer and entrepreneur Paul Stiven is the creator and brand name of a Luxury Chewing Gum being touted as an innovative new product in the field of fashion, food, fashion and life-style.

The gum is not about a particular flavor, but about the unusual packaging, which comes wrapped in famous luxury brand and trendy imagery (A Fashion Collection) and packed into hand grenades, bullets and brass knuckles (An Army Collection).

Initially, the Paul Stiven Luxury Chewing Gum gum was packaged in well known luxury branded packaging such as CHANEL, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen and Dolce and Gabbana, as shown below:

However, he must have been violating copyright laws because now the gum is packaged in fashion iconography, patterns and colors reminiscent of and alluding to the famous brand labels.

Paul Stiven Luxury Chewing Gum Fashion Collection

Colored and printed tin boxes with interior mirrors:

above: Padlock (a reference to Hermes)

above: Eye See You (this features a Krink-like dripping Double C Chanel logo)

above: Blanc Neve (or Snow White) is supposed to hint at cocaine

Printed boxes emulating Fendi and Burberry checks and plaids respectively:

above: Plot of Chess

above: Tartan

Printed Flip-top containers:

above: Skulls (originally branded as Alexander McQueen)

above: Camouflage

above: Newspaper

Packaged Sets:

above: Five different packages in Luxury Gift Box - LUBA (feminine version)

above: Five different packages in Luxury Gift Box - LUBO (masculine version)

As part of the Fashion Collection, Stiven also offers miniature "Jane" handbags (a knockoff of a Birkin) filled with gum, made of leather in various colors that comes in an orange box - like its real namesake from Hermes:

And now, what seems like it should be an entirely separate concept/website/brand...

Paul Stiven Luxury Chewing Gum Army Collection

In addition to the Fashion Collection, Stiven has an "Army" collection (Paul has served in the Army). This consists of the MK2 hand grenades of various colors filled with gum, AK 47 bullets and Brass Knuckles, both filled with gum. The hook here, apparently, is that the metal used in casting the grenades and bullets is actually taken from the Military.

MK2 Grenades filled with gum in various colors:

AK 47 Bullets Filled With Gum (expected this year):

Body To Body (brass knuckles packaging expected this year):

Stiven's site, which is like three sites in one, also offers milk and dark chocolate versions of the Birkin handbag on a stick, the Lolliciok, and says he'll soon be offering actual leather handbags, but I'm not even going to address those because they are not relevant to the gum.

The chewing gum comes in one flavor (mint-licorice), but it's the unique packaging that will appeal to fashionable chewers.

Not at all a bad idea, but with their oddly disparate items, a poorly designed e-commerce web site (he also needs to replace all the CGI with actual photos), lousy print ads, and terrible product videos, the product's potential is being hurt by the branding.

Their newest ad campaign (just launched this month in various Italian publications) is attempting to be sexy, but is simply confusing and inconsistent and looks like weird ads for slutty lingerie or sex toys. That may be purposeful, but perhaps premature. It might behoove them to first make it clear what the product is if they wish to introduce it internationally.

Some of the inconsistent and confusing ads for the gum:

And although the gum is sold in their online store (smart), you have to register just to browse (dumb). A few of Paul Stiven's Luxury Chewing Gums are offered online and in New York's Maison 24

If only they'd narrow it down to either the Fashion Collection or the Army Collection and hire a good Creative Director and Brand Strategist, they could be a huge success internationally.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I love the idea of a luxury gum. But with this one, the branding is hurting the product. If there's ever been a client whose communications I'd like to overhaul, this is it.

www.paulstiven.it

Twinkies + Bananas = New Snack Treat!

Hostess Brings Back Banana-Creme Twinkie By LAUREN SHEPHERD

Twinkie lovers, get ready to go bananas.

The sweet treat known for its golden spongy cake and its creamy vanilla center is returning to its roots with banana-creme filling - the flavor that first made the snack a hit with sweet-toothed people more than 70 years ago.

Hostess, owned by Kansas City, Mo.-based Interstate Bakeries Corp., began selling the banana-creme snack cakes last week at retail stores nationwide. The filling tastes just as sweet as the standard vanilla but with a subtle hint and smell of banana.

Old-timers may remember the taste from the pre-World War II years. From 1930, when the Twinkie was first invented, to the 1940s, Twinkies were filled solely with banana creme. But a banana shortage during the war forced Hostess bakers to replace it with the vanilla flavor.

Hostess has reintroduced the flavor during limited-time promotions in the past, but always took the treat off the shelves when the promotion ended.

The company was finally persuaded to make the flavor part of its lineup for good after Hostess offered it for four weeks last year for the release of the movie "King Kong." Total Twinkie sales jumped 20 percent during the promotion.

The flavor got high marks from Amanda Reid, 29, who was taking a break Tuesday from her litigation consulting job in midtown Manhattan. After biting into the Twinkie, she pronounced it "banana-y."

"You can still taste the original Twinkie flavor underneath it," she said. "It almost makes it seem like it's a little bit healthier than a regular Twinkie."

The fruit flavor may make banana Twinkies taste like a healthier snack, but according to the nutritional information, there's little difference between the banana and vanilla flavored versions, which contain 150 calories each.

Hostess sells more than half a billion Twinkies each year.
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Twinkie History:

Twinkies - Tingling Taste Buds for more than 75 Years

One of America's best known and most loved snack cakes, Twinkies have been tantalizing taste buds and filling lunch boxes since 1930. Twinkies are the stuff of legends - President Clinton put one in a time capsule - and have achieved the status of cultural icon, with the American Society of Media Photographers recently mounting a photo exhibition featuring Twinkies. But to most people, they're just fun to eat.

Whether we're carrying a supply in the glove compartment for a quick on-the-road snack, freezing them, deep frying them, or eating them right out of the package, millions of Twinkie lovers would agree with creator Jimmy Dewar's statement that "Twinkies was the best darn-tootin' idea I ever had."

Many of the 500 million Twinkies sold every year spark wonderful creative impulses, as moms, dads, school teachers and kids take to their kitchens to invent gourmet recipes, including Twinkie Shortcake, Twinkie Misu and Twinkie Sushi. And let's not forget those amazing Twinkie Wedding Cakes. A collection of Twinkie recipes is scheduled for publication next year and we'll keep posting some of these delectable delights on our website.
For Twinkie Recipes, click here.

Hostess History:

The Hostess ® brand got its start in Indianapolis in 1925. Continental Baking Company purchased a bakery called Taggart that was selling popular new bread called Wonder ® (maybe you've heard of it). Continental began selling Wonder Bread as its national bread brand but needed a line of cakes to sell alongside. Hostess cake was born, including the chocolate cup cake which is still popular today.

Continental hit the sponge cake gold mine in 1930 when Jimmy Dewar invented Twinkies ® . Seeing a need for an inexpensive product during the depression, Dewar made use of shortcake pans that were only used during the strawberry season. Dewar's idea was to inject the shortcake with a banana crème filling to make them a year-round treat and sell them two for a nickel. Dewar's quest for a catchy name ended on his way to St. Louis to present his sweet invention. Driving down the highway he passed a billboard advertising ?Twinkle Toe? shoes, and from this the Twinkies name evolved.

The Twinkies' popularity skyrocketed and it soon became Hostess' best-selling snack cake. During World War II a banana ration caused Continental to switch to the vanilla crème center that is loved today. Twinkies have become an American icon and nearly half a billion are made each year.

Through the years Hostess has developed new treats including Ding Dongs ® , Ho Ho's ® , Suzy Q's ® , Sno Balls ® and fruit pies, as well as a wide range of donut products, including the popular Donette ® brand of bite-sized donuts.

In the summer of 1995, Interstate Bakeries Corporation acquired Continental Baking Company. This made Interstate the largest wholesale baker of fresh delivered bread and cake in the United States.

You can buy the Twinkie Recipe book below here.