I Say To-may-to

Heinz Tomato ketchup, that is! It's time for another installment of the Heinz Tomato Ketchup Creativity Contest winners! Anthropomorphic food continues to be a favorite theme. Here are a few of the 2010 winners:



The Red Carpet takes on a new meaning with this great design from 8th grader Albert M.:

Go on a Surfin' Safari with this Fry Guy from 11th grader Synclaire K.:

Hang on with this Roller Coaster design from 10th grader Jasmyne D.:

Be sure to check out the Winner's Gallery for more great designs! I think the one of a ketchup bottle and hot dog at a diner is my favorite. And there's still time to enter this year's contest (provided you are in grades 1-12)!

You Say To-mah-to

Whether you say to-may-to or to-mah-to, everyone can agree that packages of tomatoes are much more appealing when emblazoned with a cheery mascot. There seems to be something about grape tomatoes in particular that calls out for a spokes-tomato. I've previously posted two other examples of grape tomato mascots, and now I've come across three more:

Mr. Tasty Grape Tomato looks like a regular Yankee Doodle Dandy!

Old King Grape looks like a merry old soul.

And who wouldn't pick Tom, Matt, and Otto when authentic grape tomatoes are required?

Double Bubble

Here's a follow-up to an earlier post featuring anthropomorphic characters on gumball machines:

I think I like the Raspberry, presumably playing the blues on his saxophone, best!

Extreme Makeover: Mr. Peanut Edition

As any collector knows, half the fun of collecting is sharing your collection. So you can imagine my delight when earlier this week I was contacted by a representative of WomansDay.com, the online version of that classic magazine, and asked if they could use a a picture from my Mr. Peanut presidents coloring book in a story about food mascot transformations! Of course, I immediately agreed and was excited to see the article debut online here.

I'm sure readers of this blog will be interested in the article, although there was a dearth of mascots of the food with eyes variety. In fact, only Mr. Peanut and Miss Chiquita (Banana) made the grade. Although Mr. Peanut has changed over the years, his transformation was not as radical as that of Miss Chiquita. In a metamorphosis worthy of Ovid, she went from a banana-shaped beauty to a rather bland "woman with eyes." Where's the fun in that?

If you have missed out on Mr. Peanut's transformation, then check out these two new commercials from Planters featuring the new, Robert Downey Jr.-voiced Mr. Peanut:






Both videos courtesy of Planter's YouTube channel

I'm still not sure how I feel about this. I like the animation a lot, but I just never imagined that he would sound like Robert Downey Jr. I guess I would have thought he would sound more sophisticated, which for me means a British accent. I think Cary Grant would have been a perfect Mr. Peanut. Or possibly James Mason.

Still, I'm happy to see Mr. Peanut gaining renewed popularity. In fact, over 226,000 people, myself included, "like" him on Facebook!

Make New Friends...

But keep the old. One is silver and the other gold. If you were a Girl Scout like me, then you probably remember singing that song. You probably also remember selling Girl Scout Cookies. Back when I was a Girl Scout, your parents didn't just bring the order form to work one day and bring it home all filled up with orders for you. No siree. You went door-to-door selling them (apparently no one cared about child abduction in those days). I suppose some Girls Scouts liked doing this, but I dreaded it (not as much as I dreaded gym class, but enough). It was always the same. You'd ring the doorbell and whoever answered asked how much they were. I'd tell them $1.50 a box (this was about 1980), and they would proceed to complain about how much they had gone up in price, how few cookies were in the box, and what an overall rip-off it was. I suppose better salesgirls than me had ready answers for these gripes, but I had none. Needless to say I never sold many cookies and only once got the special 100+ box badge.

So a few weeks ago when a colleague brought their daughter's cookie order form to work, I didn't order any. Yes, I will admit it was partly due to resentment that today's Girl Scouts don't have to go door-to-door. But mostly it was because they're $3.50 a box now! There are hardly any cookies in a box, and it's an overall rip-off! I didn't regret my decision until the cookies were delivered last week. The cookie boxes were nothing special, but the cardboard boxes that cases of cookies came in featured fantastic cookie characters!

Looking at the Little Brownie Bakers website (one of two authorized Girl Scout Cookies bakeries, the other being ABC Bakers), I was able to find pictures of all eight characters.

Trefoil (aka Shortbread):
It's interesting to me that the Trefoil cookie is portrayed as an old lady, while all the other characters are young and active. It's also interesting to me (and rather alarming) that if I had to buy some cookies I would now pick the Trefoils. Thirty years ago when I was selling these I liked the Samoas best.

Do-Si-Do (aka peanut butter sandwiches):

Dulce de Leche:

Lemon Chalet Creme:

Samosa (aka Caramel deLites):

Tagalongs (aka peanut butter patties):

Thin Mint:

Thank U Berry Munch:

These new friends are surely destined to become gold. When cookie time rolls around next year I may even buy a box and you should, too.

***Please note that all images are the property of Little Brownie Bakers and Kellogg NA***

***Please also note that Girl Scout Cookies are a major fundraiser for a worthwhile organization. The cookies are not a rip-off and you should buy some if you see a Girl Scout selling them***

Super Sonic

Last month my husband visited South Carolina on a business trip and thoughtfully brought me back a cup from drive-in burger joint Sonic (we don't have one near us) featuring tater tot mascot Totty. I'm actually impressed he recognized this as food with eyes. To me it looks like a piece of shag carpeting rather than a tater tot. I probably would not have recognized it as such if it were not for Brandon of the Waffle Whiffer Zone posting a Totty bag on flickr.

Here's one side:


And the other:

And a flattened out scan:

Totty doesn't seem to be featured on their web site, but check out Tater Taunt for a somewhat less friendly version.

Mr. Pizz-Ahh!

For some reason I forgot to post this before, but last summer we got a flyer for a new pizza place in town. Now the last thing the town I live in needs is yet another pizza place, but this one caught my eye because of their great mascot, Mr. Pizz-Ahh!:


At my insistence, we went to check it out. After seeing the pizza available, it seemed Mr. Pizz-Ughh! had replaced Mr. Pizz-Ahh! so we actually didn't stay. But I did snap a picture of their delivery van:

I think he's one of the better mascots I've seen lately. And I love that his feet are subs (or hoagies as I prefer to call them). Perhaps we'll give him another try someday.

Hostess with the Mostest?

I've been enjoying Waffle Whiffer's recent blog and Flickr posts about Hostess Cakes and their delightful mascots, particularly Fruit Pie the Magician. (If you haven't seen them, go there now!)While I remember Twinkie the Kid growing up, I have to admit that I don't have any memories of Fruit Pie the Magician. I got to wondering about this, and I think I know why. Growing up outside of Philadelphia, the snack cake market was (and is) dominated by Philadelphia-based Tastykake. While we occasionally ate Twinkies or Drake's Cakes' Devil Dogs or Yodels, mostly we ate Tastykake's Krimpets, Kandy Kakes, and their fruit pies (pineapple cheese is the best!).

I have a few Tastykake items that came from my grandfather's grocery store including this great 2-sided hang tag:


And this ruler:


Tastykake has a great font and a catchy jingle ("Nobody bakes a cake as tasty as a Tastykake..."), but it is severely lacking in the mascot department - at least until now. Browsing the Tastykake website, I found that they seem to have a new mascot, Kirbee Krimpet!

Here's a plush Kirbee:

And here's Kirbee on a tin (full of Krimpets, naturally):

Kirbee seems to be Butterscotch Krimpet, not a Jelly Krimpet, which I generally prefer, but I don't mind. A YouTube search turned up a recent commercial featuring Kirbee and the Phillies Phanatic:

Courtesy of CircleOneMarketing1 on YouTube

Kirbee hasn't made his way onto the packaging yet, but who knows?

Pick a Pak of Pickle Pilgrims

If the menu for your Thanksgiving feast isn't finalized yet, you might want to consider adding some pickles. That's "Picklicious!" according to Mt. Olive Pickle's spokespickle Ollie Q. Cumber:

Ollie is taking his new role as spokespickle quite seriously, and he even has his own on-line space with a variety of activities including coloring pages and postcards.

Can't get enough of Ollie? You can get your very own Ollie t-shirt by sending in some proofs of purchase (and shipping and handling). Or better yet, submit a recipe to the Picklicious Showcase. If it's chosen as a Showcase Recipe, you'll win your very own Ollie t-shirt! So be sure to send in your recipes for pickle stuffing, sweet potato and pickle casserole, and pumpkin and pickle pie.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank You, Veterans!

If you're looking for the perfect way to thank your favorite veteran, why not surprise them with an item featuring Spammy the Spam can? It's sure to remind them of one of their favorite service memories: a delicious meal of Spam at the mess hall!

The Spam Shop features an array of Spammy merchandise including:

A Spammy Bean Bag Plush:



A magnet:

A bobble head:

A wall clock:

Golf balls:

Keychain:

Spammy Jammies:

A blanket:

There are many other Spammy and Spam-related items to chose from. With the holiday season right around the corner, it could also be the solution for all your gift giving needs!

Now That's Italian!

If you're still searching for some Columbus Day festivities, then look no further! Ollie and Friends, spokesfoods from Italian restaurant Olive Garden, will now share with us some Italian Adventures!

Here we have Ollie the Olive, Tonya Tomato, Ricky Ravioli, Gina Grape, and Bene Breadstick ready to show us the wonders of Italy:


First up, a tour of Sicily (click for larger version):

Next, learn some Italian phrases:

And now a maze through the whole of Italy:

Olive Garden children's menu courtesy of Maria - grazie mille!

Cruel, Cruel Cruller

For years I've seen boxes of donuts in the grocery store from the Koffee Kup Bakery of Burlington, VT, but never tried them. Their smiling donut spokesman and a sale price of $1.99 finally wore me down, and I recently bought a box of devils food chocolate donuts:

The box features their wonderful mascot, Mr. Cruller (it's in tiny lettering on his cap):

Curiously, he's Mr. Cruller, not Mr. Kruller.

I'm usually an ardent food label-reader, but this time I just looked at Mr. Cruller and put the box in the cart. Only when I got it home did I notice Mr. Cruller pointing to the horrific nutrition facts on the back:

I know donuts aren't health food, but 8 grams of trans fats per donut?! I thought that stuff was banned!! I'm seriously disappointed with Mr. Cruller. Mr. Peanut would never try to lead people astray like that.

Not wanting to meet Mr. Balloon Angioplasty next, I decided to forgo Mr. Cruller. This was a difficult decision since I hate wasting food (there are people starving in China, after all). To ease my guilty conscience, I decided to at least take a few pictures of the donuts before disposing of them as hazardous waste. So I got out the googly eyes and snapped away:

Not very original, I know, but there are few things that can't be improved upon by the addition of a pair of googly eyes. These particular eyes required quite a bit of scrubbing to remove the greasy residue after the photo shoot. Mr. Cruller will be staying on the grocery store shelf from now on.

I Scream for "Eye"ce Cream!

One of the best things about summer is the multitude of small, locally-owned ice cream stands that open up for the season. Who can resist a soft serve twist or a cone of mint chocolate chip on a hot day? And if you're really lucky, a smiling ice cream cone might just be there to encourage your licking.

I was really lucky on two occasions recently. We visited our local ice cream establishment, the Curry Freeze, in Rotterdam, NY. Contrary to what you must be thinking, the Curry Freeze does not actually sell frozen curry, but is named after the street where it's located.

Benevolently gazing down on all the patrons is a grinning soft serve cone:


A close-up reveals our friend to be a Flavor Burst cone:

I've actually seen this same Flavor Burst cone guy at two other ice cream stands in the region. It turns out Flavor Burst is a system to infuse a variety of flavoring into plain vanilla soft serve ice cream. Check out the Flavor Burst website for all the details including information on the ominously-named FB80LPa and FB44CMX systems. Regrettably, the cone guy is nowhere to be found on the website and seems to have been replaced with a much more pedestrian penguin mascot.

This past weekend we made a journey to a new (to us) ice cream stand located literally in the middle of nowhere in Wynantskill, NY. Moxie's has been making their own ice cream right on the premises since the 1930s.


Welcoming all visitors is Mr. Blue Moon, a cone of Moxie's unique Blue Moon flavor:

I asked what Blue Moon tasted like and was told that it tasted differently to everyone, so I had to try some. It tasted like orange sherbet to me, so I passed on a full cone of it. But I did try their Chocolate Challenge and Teaberry flavors. Both were excellent, but the Teaberry was particularly exciting for me because my family used to get this flavor at the now-defunct Farmer's Dairy ice cream store in Hazleton, PA.

Gracing the blue wall of the building where the ice cream is made are a pair of larger-than-life smiling cones:

Out back are some other ice cream cones like this giant lady cone in a pillbox hat:

And this purple gentleman in a top hat:

Moxie's also has a vast play area for kids, a romantic pergola, and rockers for the older set (like me). It's definitely worth the drive if you are anywhere near the Troy, NY area.