It's about time the dried fruit category had a sex symbol as a brand mascot.
Sun-maid must have recently just started running ads like the one below with the new-look Sun-Maiden, because the Internet is abuzz all of a sudden, despite the fact that the new look (and the spot below, by McCann Erickson) has been around since 2007.
I assume you're familiar with the Sun-Maid girl's original identity: originally a little homely looking thing, kneeling and wearing a bonnet. The new version clearly panders to the evolving (read: degenerating) tastes of the American consuming public. But to the raisin-consuming public? I was under the impression that most people who eat raisins are between the ages of 2 and 8, or 65+.
Below is a progression of the brand identity of Sun-Maid, starting with an image of Lorraine Collett Petersen, who is the original inspiration for the logo, according to raisin industry lore.
Somehow, Sun-Maid is attempting to tie their product to healthy living by increasing their mascot's cup size. The disheveled looking raisin girl could not have possibly represented a healthy lifestyle (although if you look at the above image from 1923, you may agree with that last statement. She looks like the love child of Hester Prynne and Sasquatch.)
Regardless, I'm not willing to call this a bad move by any means. Many purists and ad history buffs are probably spewing about how inappropriate it is for Sun-Maid to inflate their mascot's bosom. Realize there's only so much you can get from the toddler and octogenarian markets before you need to expand your target and reinvent your brand, and that's clearly what Sun-Maid is trying to do. They're just living by the old axiom, when life gives you grapes, turn them into grapefruits.
Just kidding. I made that axiom up.
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despite the rumors, the new Sun Maid girl actually looks relatively conservative compared to most digitized females
ReplyDelete'Tis true, they don't show that she's wearing an ankle-length dress. They could have done a lot more than just giving her some more curves.
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