nosh nook #143 - wednesday, september 30, 2009

hostess offers 'monsters vs. aliens' treats (link)
09.29.09 - brandweek - by elaine wong

you really can't beat solid movie tie-ins. without them, i wouldn't have been able to drink out of a sweet empire strikes back glass every day for most of my childhood. sure there are a lot of lame tie-ins & promotions out there, but for every crappy little disney toy there are more than enough awesome muppet movie glasses. i suppose my examples of cool movie tie-ins are a bit dated & glass-focused, but i'm hoping that you get the point regardless. if done right, movie tie-ins can lead to some promotions that kids will be thinking about twenty-five years down the road. i'm not sure this is one of them though...

as brandweek's elaine wong reports, hostess & dreamworks have teamed up to promote yesterday's release of the monsters vs aliens dvd & blu-ray. they launched an "instant-win match game" on the hostess website yesterday where you go to the website, enter a ton of personal information & play a game of memory. if you win & get randomly picked (you won't), you win ONE MILLION DOLLARS! you can buy a TON of snack cakes with that kind of scratch. as if a miniscule chance at a million dollars wasn't enough, "hostess is also selling two limited-edition monsters vs. aliens snack cakes. one, called monster cakes, are chocolate hostess cupcakes topped with blue icing and blue sprinkles. b.o.b. cakes, made with blue hostess sno balls, are made to resemble the movie’s gelatinous blue blob." it's perfect timing. with the halloween pumpktoberfest season upon us, monsters are en vogue. anyway, that sno ball one's genius. you can't go wrong with a sno ball or a blob.

david leavitt, the vp of snack marketing at interstate brands (hostess), is excited about the promotion & loves puns as much as he loves giving away a million dollars. wong refers to a statement leavitt issued, where he said "with hostess' 'monsters vs. aliens'-themed snack cakes and the chance to win $1 million sweepstakes, we know this will be a 'monstrous' promotion." well put, david. so yeah. million dollars. snack cakes. i guess there's a movie in there somewhere too. you should probably buy it now that it's available for home consumption...or maybe you can wait until you win A MILLION DOLLARS and buy 50,000 copies of the dvd. fyi, if you prefer, you can get it in a package with b.o.b.'s big break in monster 3D. that means 50,000 free copies of that too! it sounds like a gripping film. b.o.b.'s apparently the blob. i bet he gets into all sorts of animated mischief.

nosh nook #40 - friday, may 8, 2009

day after pandemonium, kentucky fried chicken honors oprah's grilled chicken coupons (link)
05.07.09 - ny daily news - by lacie hales and dave goldiner

a few weeks back, a co-worker announced that popeyes was doing a one day special offering eight pieces of chicken for $4.99 (regularly $12.99). it was his bday a few days before, so as is tradition in the office (on my first day at work, i was a member of a popeyes run), we celebrated with food for the whole office. he & i ventured out to popeyes in the early afternoon & returned after a two-hour ordeal that involved seeing that the line at the closest one wrapped out the door, trying to find another popeyes & finding out it was closed & returning to the original popeyes to wait in line for a half-hour in one of four lines that all eventually turned into a mass of angry, chicken-wanting customers & even produced a shouting match between an asshat customer & the manager (who, in her defense, was very polite for quite some time before). it was absolute madness.

then, a few days ago, in her tradition of giving things away, oprah announced a promo at kfc.  starting tuesday, folks could download & print out a coupon that they could exchange for a free meal at kfc. as hales & goldiner report (what does it say about the fact that the ny daily news has two reporters working this story?), lines at nyc locales were still incredibly long this thursday.  despite long waits, people were getting their chicken, a refreshing change from wednesday, when a locale on 42nd st stopped honoring the coupons & people organized a sit-in.

as it is, kfc locales are in danger of running out of chicken this weekend.  the shit's definitely going to hit the fan if that happens & peeps are definitely going to get pissed.  maybe we'll have more sit-ins!  people should take to the streets!  seriously, what does it say about our country when people choose to protest about not getting free chicken but sit by silent about pretty much everything else?  iraq?  prop 8?  corporate greed?  they ain't no free chicken, that's for sure.

#39 - it's a crazy cracker world.

as i sat down to write this blog entry, i went in not knowing exactly what i was going to write about. all i knew was that i had me a big glass of iced tea by my side & some hummus & crackers in the kitchen awaiting my consumption. to get warmed up, i decided to do a little research on my crackers, whose box was all the way over in the kitchen & whose exact name escaped me at that moment...so i searched for what i knew--"triscuit parmesan nabisco.com." about halfway down the list of searches, i came across the words "kraft - the tale of the magical crackers." as one who grew up in new hampshire, i couldn't help but be curious about magical crackers. i clicked through...& sidetrack! on the other end, i found a cracker wonderland mini-site, complete with:

the tale of the magical crackers
this is main attraction on the site. a guy named lester has brought you & a family of four to his attic to watch his magical cracker movie. once the internet catches up & the movie starts, it's all soothing narrator telling the magical story of one holiday season in cracker town. it starts with a knock on the door & on the other side, there's a giant ritz & his buddies giant wheat thin & giant triscuit! when i first saw these monstrous crackers, i was all "holy crap! those crackers are monstrous." then the soothing voice used the word "ginormous" to describe them & i stood corrected. these three ginormous crackers stay through the winter, magically regenerating over & over again, feeding the family when the dog pulls the turkey onto the floor at dinner & helping santa haul his ass up the roof on christmas eve when he's too tired to do it his damn self. at the end of the film, it is revealed that in a past year, a giant block of cheese showed up in town & then it is revealed that the narrator is actually the dog, the same dog who pulled the turkey onto the floor. i love surprise endings!

you can download this film onto your ipod!

snowball showdown
to play snowball showdown, you first create a character.

my character is a young black boy named "kickass kid." the backstory i created for him is that he is an outcast in the land of magical crackers. as you can sort of tell from the below image, others throw snowballs at him & attempt to destroy his giant cracker. assessment: life is not fun for the kickass kid of magical cracker town.

uncle lou's tale-o-matic
uncle lou likes to hang out in the shed, where he's created a very elaborate machine that spits out a lame mad lib that is nothing more than a written version of the "tale of the magical crackers" film. it appears that you should wear yellow gloves when operating the machine, probably because direct contact with it can result in terminal lameness. the only thing i like about uncle lou's creation is how it flags inappropriate words & makes you change them. it flagged the word "basement," but "attic" is completely acceptable...obviously.

seriously, nabisco. who approved the creation of this mini-site? carol from the steno pool?

#39 - it's a crazy cracker world.
snack: triscuit parmesan garlic thin crisps with athenos roasted red pepper hummus
drink: 4c red tea antioxidant/peach

these triscuit parmesan garlic thin crisps are pretty good. they're definitely better than regular triscuits, which are really only good if you top them with lots of cheese & dips & junk. these ones actually have flavor on their own. it's subtle, which makes sense, because if triscuits are anything, they're subtle...the hint of parmesan makes me wonder why all triscuits don't at least have some flavor.

regardless of their acceptable flavor level, i'm still dipping them in athenos roasted red pepper hummus. this stuff comes with chunks of red pepper & parsley bits sprinkled on the the surface, which looks quite fancy & makes you think that you might be eating something other than your average, everyday hummus...but you're not, really.

the 4c red tea is the final 4c iced tea flavor i've experienced & it is way too friggin' sweet, especially if you follow their recommended water/drink mix ratio. i mean, it's pretty good overall, but i really wish it wasn't so darn sweet. it's overwhelming & with every drink i take, i get an image of me brushing my teeth in my head. that can't be good.

#3 - XTREME PROMOTION!!!

back in nh for the evening, i went for a quick drive with my mother down the street to the windham shaw's supermarket. growing up & until less than ten years ago, the area where the shaw's is was forest next to the commuter parking lot. now it is another version of the most well known new england grocery store with its organic/health food section & great deals & fresh produce tips & whatnot.

after perusing a number of aisles for snacks, we eventually ended up at the organic food section, where i picked up a bag of eden organic spicy pumpkin dry roasted seeds. each serving of these organic bad boys contains 16g of fat, but amongst that fat, there are oodles of omegas & poly & mono fats & junk of that nature..."good fats."

on top of this most spicy & healthy purchase, an end cap display caught my attention near the back of the store, a display that featured a snack that paired a certain swashbuckling doctor with a certain candy mainstay...

#3 - EXTREME PROMOTION!!!
snack: adventures of indiana jones mint crisp m&ms
drink: mountain dew voltage

over the years, i've really become more of a nuts man when it comes to m&ms, with almond emerging as my clear favorite amongst the flavors. even in the basic setup, where the candy display features only plain & peanut, peanut wins 99 out of 100 times.

there have been a number of m&m incarnations through the years & there have been a number of mint editions amongst these. these indiana jones mint ones bring a little crunch bar action into the mix & some of them are branded with cute little indiana jones symbols, like ones where the "m's" printed on the candy shell are wearing an indy hat or the evil ones, where the "m" is inside of a CRYSTAL SKULL! these ones are slightly spooky & probably haunted. as told by the legend on their website (which i highly recommend going to so that m&m/mars can claim higher click-thru rates & charge more $ for their online promotions)...

many centuries ago, mayan rulers discovered a minty snack so deliciously crispy that it was hidden in a secret room deep in an underground maze, never to be tasted again...until now.

SPOO. KEY. anyhow, i was always more of a star wars man, so i'm not going to see the movie anyhow...but i will listen to the theme song on constant loop as i type this post.

to wash down my m&ms, i went to the fridge, which my mother had stocked with two twelve packs of mountain dew for my soon-to-be-driving younger brother. the two flavors--voltage & revolution--are part of a promotion that plays off of the current presidential campaign by creating what is cleverly known as a DEWmocracy. get it? i went with voltage, since it seemed more amp'd & i like that in a soft drink.

the story behind the DEWmocracy is that fans of this pepsi beverage get to vote on their favorite of three brand new flavors (all of which contain ginseng, absolutely beloved by the kids these days). at the completion of the campaign (which comes in only 46 days as of today), the most voted-on flavor joins the mountain dew canon. this is all explained quite clearly on the website, which you should go to so that pepsi co can claim higher click-thru rates & charge more $ for their online promotions, etc...

another fun fact...more people will likely vote in this campaign than in the general election. right now, voltage is the clear front-runner in the race. it makes me feel good to have picked a beverage that, if this trend continues, will stand tall as the clear winner on august 1st...voting is totally EXTREME TO THE MAX!!!