The New Look of Sun-Maid: Sun Mistress?

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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The Bastardization of Claymation Christmas Specials

A Christmas themed spot from my favorite campaign currently on TV came out recently. Perhaps you've seen it:



This just-plain-adorable spot places the iPhone on the Island of Misfit Toys, which you may recall from the classic 1965 claymation, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The phone is a misfit because, according to Verizon and the cute screwed up toys in the ad, the iPhones cool features are countered by the poor 3G coverage of AT&T.

It seemed so clever to me until I realized that this wasn't the first time a Rankin/Bass animation had been morphed into an ad. Please recall this spot from Christmas 2007:



The Aflac Duck, created by Kaplan Thaler Group and voiced by the incomparable Gilbert Gottfried, substitutes as the lead for Santa's sleigh in the stead of an incapacitated Rudolph.

A little disappointing that Verizon didn't do their homework on this one (or they didn't take into account that both commercials would appear during the same Thanksgiving Day Parade, as they did today). The spot is just so well done that I may forgive them on this one. At least it isn't Luke Wilson throwing postcards all over a map.

Regardless, hope you all enjoyed your turkey day. Gilbert wishes you all a Happy Black Friday:

Best ad on TV 10/8: Tabasco

As much as the faces on the pepperonis might freak you out, this is just an all around great ad. Despite never seeing an ad for Tabasco brand hot sauce before, we all know what it is or at least that it exists.

They identify the product in the first 2 seconds of the ad, have the humorous value of singing pepperoni as well as a memorable jingle (which can go horribly wrong sometimes), and they bring it all together with the tag line "So Much More Than Hot." That line makes me get it; as a heavy user of the hot sauce category, I can tell you that a lot of times you are just trying to mask the actual flavor of something by dousing it in Frank's, for example. The idea that Tabasco sauce enhances the flavors rather than covers them is an awesome, unique one.

I may indeed try Tabasco on my pizza real soooooooon. Great, now that's in my head. Damn signing toppings.

I love hamsters

Now, I understand the cute metaphor, but really I think they're just playing to people's love of fuzzy lil' rodents. Who DOESN'T love a hamster fiddling with an mp3 player? It's kind of funny how that's a feature that is compelling about the product, despite the fact that I can play my iPod in my 97 Mercury with a $5 gadget that goes into the tape deck...

"I know what'll make it sell...put another hamster in the passenger seat, picking a song on the iPod! And make the other hamsters bob their heads! Brilliant!"

I don't know why more agencies don't experiment with the hamster realm, they make it too adorable to look away:



This all being said, I grew up with two hamsters. One day, one of them escaped and my dad went to the pet store and bought a new one that looked like the first. My siblings and I were fooled. For 8 years.