Welcome!

Happy New Year and welcome to Food with Eyes. No, this blog is not a vegan rant against animal derived products, but a tribute to anthropomorphic food characters, or as I like to call them, Food with Eyes. Some of these characters may be well-known advertising icons such as Mr. Peanut, while others are more obscure, or simply artists' creations without ties to merchandising. Others may not even be food per se, but anthropomorphic inanimate objects.

Posts will feature images from my collection with some explanatory details if known. I'm sure I will not be able to give proper credit for the majority of items, so I would like to thank graphic designers, artists, and illustrators past and present for their work in making food come to life.

One might ask why would someone be so interested in food with eyes as to collect items and even produce a blog? I asked myself that very question as I have had a particular interest in food with eyes for as long as I can remember. Thinking back, one of my earliest memories involves food with eyes. It was Christmas, 1973, and I had recently turned 2 years old. Beneath the tree a set of plastic cookware with faces greeted me, complete with a smiling piece of toast. Alas, the toys themselves no longer remain, but one picture reveals the set:

A close-up of the cheerful toast:

A bit of searching reveals other, perhaps earlier, incarnations of the set:

Perhaps I was not the only one to be enthralled by the smiling cookware and toast; Mr. Toast looks like he could be a direct descendant....