nosh nook #176 - monday, november 16, 2009

blogging moms wooed by food firms (link)
11.15.09 - l.a. times - by p.j. huffstutter & jerry hirsch

i have to admit. "food blogger" is a pretty sweet gig. since starting up eat!drink!snack! in the summer of 2008, the instant fame & celebrity that comes with being a food blogger has helped get me into countless hollywood premieres, backstage parties & supermodels' bedrooms. "oh yeah. eat!drink!snack! you're the guy who's obsessed with snacks, creates ridiculous themes around them & then writes about them all in lower-case letters. i read about you on the internet. come on in, sir. we've got a table with hookers & cristal waiting for you in the back." it's sort of like being a rock star, but with less coke-snorting talent required.

i thought i had it pretty sweet until i read about the l.a. times' article about all the perks that mommy bloggers receive. since moms are influential spenders & usually the target market for mommy bloggers, companies have been flying certain mommy bloggers around the country, introducing them to snacks & other mom-friendly products. in turn, they assume that the mommies will gush about their experiences on their blogs, essentially advertising for the companies. in response, the FTC recently set guidelines saying that starting on december 1st, bloggers have to disclose when companies give them free stuff or perks. thanks a lot, mommy bloggers. now i have to let the government know that doritos gave me a lifetime supply of cool ranch doritos in exchange for making them popular again via eat!drink!snack!

the times writes about one mommy blogger in particular, andrea deckard, who runs the mommy snacks blog. "earlier this year, frito-lay flew her to los angeles to meet celebrities such as model brooke burke and the spice girls' mel b, while pitching her on its latest snack ad campaign." on another occasion, nestle put her & a bunch of other mommy bloggers up in a sweet hotel in pasadena, wined & dined them & sent omaha steaks to their families. deckard notes that "people have accused (mommy bloggers) of being corporate shills," but added that "it's not like (she) sold (her) soul for a chocolate bar." that's true. you didn't sell your soul for a chocolate bar. you sold your integrity for a few trips to cali.

nosh nook #161 - monday, october 26, 2009

wise hopes rock dudes will top cheesy cheetah (link)
10.25.09 - brandweek - by brian morrissey

hey totally radical dudes & dudettes! shawn here rapping at ya with a few tips that'll help make you the coolest guy or gal in school.

tip #1: get a skateboard. i was recently rapping with a few local teens about what drug-free things they like to do in their spare time & "skateboard with my buddies" was by far the top answer (even among the girls! LOL). from this, i deduce that it's a popular teen hobby, so save up the money from your paper route & get a skateboard. just make sure to wear a helmet when you're ollying!

tip #2: get the jonas brothers' latest album (if you don't have it already). they're the most popular band in the world right now. if you're a girl, other girls with think you're cool & want to talk to you. if you're a guy, girls will think you're cool & want to talk to you, although your conversation will likely be about the jonas brothers, so you should probably pick a favorite jo bro. i recommend joe. he's dreamy.

tip #3: get yourself some cheese puffs. cheese puffs are the pinnacle of cool snacking. chester cheetah, that totally cool, totally extreme cheetos mascot with the surfboard & snazzy sunglasses loves cheese puffs. if you want to be as tubular as him, you don't necessarily have to get cheetos. cheese doodles are cool too. according to brandweek, cheese doodles recently unveiled "a digital campaign to support 'cheez dudes,' a trio of rock-band mascots introduced in august as the faces of the cheez doodles snack brand." since they're in a band, you know they're cool. in turn, that makes cheese doodles cool.

tip #4: get money. money equals cool & the cheez dudes can help you solve your teen money troubles. as brandweek notes, on the cheetos website the cheez dudes are featured in a "augmented-reality game called 'rock the cheez' that invites players to create their own rock video by arranging printouts in front of their computer’s web cam." if your rock video is cool enough, you can win $1000! just imagine all the pimple cream & pokemon cards you can buy with that!

if you follow those four tips, i guarantee that you'll be the coolest guy or gal at your school this year hands down. if you follow the last two, the cheez dudes, wise snacks & the folks in marketing will be very grateful.

nosh nook #160 - friday, october 23, 2009

to complete your day, the windows 7 whopper (link)
10.22.09 - cnet - by scott stein

it's official, geek faces. yesterday, microsoft finally unleashed windows 7, their latest & greatest operating system, on the world. from what i've read, this time, rather than adding a bunch of useless, buggy crap to their new release, they focused on improving & streamlining what they had. that's right. as of yesterday, if you wanted to upgrade your pc's OS, all you had to do was hop on a torrent site & grab yourself a free copy. thanks, technology! we need to get excited people! this weekend, you should throw a windows 7 torrenting party to celebrate!

since they love new technology in japan, they're wicked excited about windows 7. according to cnet, to commemorate the release, japan's burger kings started selling "windows 7 whoppers" yesterday. the sandwich is seven patties & five inches tall & when they introduced it, it was "for a special price of 777 yen ($8.50); at least, for the first 30 customers." burger king's been known for pulling some slightly inappropro promo stunts over the last decade or so & this one has to be up there in the top three.

as cnet points out, it's interesting that they're pairing an OS "touted as 'leaner and meaner'" with a gut-busting sandwich. seriously, i don't see how anyone but kobaishi could eat this thing. as it is, a triple whopper has 1160 calories, so the windows 7 whopper has to be somewhere in the 2500 calorie range. that's like a whole day's worth of calories for a salary man. on a related note, the this is why you're fat book comes out next tuesday. i guess the windows 7 whopper won't be featured until their next book.

nosh nook #139 - thursday, september 24, 2009

green is new face of butterfinger candy (link)
09.23.09 - sf chronicle

oh seth green. ever since you first graced us with your sarcastic wit over twenty years ago in the film can't buy my love, playing the part of ronald miller's younger brother chuckie, you've graced us with a plethora of wacky roles & projects. you've played a lovable werewolf boy on buffy the vampire slayer, dr evil's son in the austin powers movies & a (hopefully) asshat version of yourself on entourage. you've provided the voice of chris griffin on family guy & created the animation awesomeness that is robot chicken. now, twenty-five years after yor first film role, you finally get to live out your lifelong dream--being the spokesman for butterfinger. congrats.

as the sf chronicle reports, nestle "approached him over the summer to front their new promotional campaign, making him the brand's first celebrity spokesperson" & first famous face since back in the 90s, when bart simpson urged us to bite his butterfinger & warned us that nobody better lay a finger on his butterfinger. since the simpsons are no longer culturally relevant & haven't been for some time, they had to move on from the bartman. that's where green comes in.

so yeah, it's a dream come true for green, but it's one that's been a long time coming. since 60% of the sentences in this article basically say the exact same thing, i'll defer to the sentence with green's actual words: "i've been into candy all my life and butterfinger is my favorite candy bar. i even auditioned for butterfinger commercials when I was doing commercials, and never got one. and then they approached me to do something." i believe that's the wu wei at work right there, folks. best reader comment on the article: "seth neglected to mention that his contract is for 'butterfinger miniatures.'" get it? cause he's wicked short? clever, leilah. clever.

nosh nook #131 - monday, september 14, 2009

why frito-lay is returning to its super bowl playbook (link)
09.13.09 - brandweek - by elaine wong

it's football season, bitches! i'm not really one for the football myself, but i actually watched an entire giants game yesterday at a friend's place, so i'm still slightly AMP'D. we went the partially-delayed tivo route, which meant we benefited from a condensed viewing period. that meant no waiting during instant replay or halftime, but it also meant no commercials, so i'm not sure if there were any cool opening week ones. no matter, because it's not even offically ON commercialwise until next week's monday night game between indianapolis & miami. well, at least it'll be ON as far as frito lay is concerned. CAMPAIGN LAUNCH!

brandweek did an interview with frito-lay VP of marketing ann mukherjee ahead of monday the 21st, when frito lay will launch the brand new website for their brand new "crash the super bowl" contest. there's a splash page up right now & i am confident in saying...that shit is both X-treme & inspiring. for those not familiar with it, last year's contest let amateurs create a doritos commercial for the super bowl. the top rated one took home a million dollar prize.

two amateurs won with this amazing commercial. it's friggin hilarious & everybody i showed it to in my office let out a mighty guffaw. i guess that means they hadn't actually seen the ad before today though. this year's prize is five mil & there are some sort of rule changes that make it harder. they have to change it up. frito-lay's all social media savvy & whatnot...although ms mukherjee wouldn't say as much. "i don’t know if we’re savvy. i don’t know how to measure savvy." she said. "what I do know how to measure is engagement." she is PR savvy. i'll give her that.

during the interview, ms mukherjee covers a lot of topics. she gets into the "engagement" part of frito-lay marketing through the story of frito-lay's sun chips, who are converting to fully compostable bags by 2010. they ran one ad, demi moore tweeted about how cool of an idea it was & the word was out. she talks about the fact that she has a background "in religious theology, not in marketing. (she) actually wanted to be a minister...and so, one of (her) greatest passions is to collect buddhas from all over the world." cool. here's what she thinks is the key to doritos' marketing:

"the core of the idea with doritos is these are young adults who want to break the rules and be in control. that will never change. what kind of ideas and entertainment can we give them? what opportunities can we offer to help them discover themselves? whether it’s running a contest for the first consumer-generated Xbox game or giving them a never-been-done-before gaming experience via our interactive haunted house online or a personalized concert in your hand with blink-182 that leverages augmented reality, these are all things we leverage the digital space for because that is where our consumer lives."

well jargoned, ms mukherjee.