Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookie and Salted Caramel Ice Cream Sandwich from Cool Haus food truck in LA.
Our February issue is all about (you guessed it) PASTA!
(shot by Ditte Isager, Bon Appétit, February 2013)
There are very few times where you accomplish cooking a fried egg EXACTLY the way you like it. Today was one of those delicious days. #breakfast #egg #food
Getting the holidays started at @starbucks with peppermint hot chocolate and a peppermint brownie cake pop. #holidays #tistheseason (at Starbucks)
Chefs Eric Ripert and Anthony Bourdain have collaborated to create a chocolate bar for Eclat Chocolates. The “Good & Evil” bar ($18) is made with rare Peruvian cacao beans and cocoa nibs. This is gourmet chocolate taken to a whole other level. I hope chef collaborations like this happen for more food products in the future.
(source: Zagat blog)
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I think the Food Network changed everything. Chefs are celebrities now. The food world has become a celebrity world and I think it’s really affected the restaurant industry. It used to be about restaurateurs and maître d’s and now it’s about the chefs. A more chef TV driven world affects how restaurants are run.Donatella Arpaia, Next Iron Chef judge and NYC restauranteur in a recent interview
Food Marketing | Election 2012
As Election Day is upon us, yes it is time for us to reflect back on the presidential campaigns and debates, but it is also time for us to reflect on the election themed food marketing campaigns. Many businesses, especially during the last one to two months, have used the event of the presidential election as a way to leverage their product and their brand. Here are some examples of popular brands that have done big election themed marketing campaigns:
7 Eleven
7 Eleven has taken the approach of the classic red vs. blue, or in technical terms republican vs. democrat. In their “7 Election” marketing campaign, 7 Eleven has been selling red coffee cups with Romney’s name on them and blue coffee cups with Obama’s name on them. The campaign encourages customers to buy the color coffee cup of which candidate they support.
This is the fourth time 7 Eleven has done the “7 Election”. The first time they did this marketing campaign was in 2000. This marketing effort with their coffee cups is 7 Eleven’s own way of predicting the winner of the presidential election. Through out the course of the campaign 7 Eleven keeps track of how many of each color cup are sold. This is turn creates a polling system for 7 Eleven to predict a winner of the “7 Election”. Ironically, in the last two elections the presidential candidate who has been the winner of the “7 Election” has also been the winner of the presidential election. See the statistics below:
Of course, 7 Eleven hasn’t forgotten that you can’t have coffee without donuts. This year they have even been selling red iced “Republi-crème” and blue iced “Donu-crat” star shaped donuts. This photo is courtesy of my friend Kate:
The tagline for the “7 Election” of this year was “Vote Quality”. 7 Eleven has used the election to both make an interactive, multi-dimensional campaign while at the same time highlighting their products.
Ben & Jerry’s
Ben and Jerry’s has always been a brand to publicly support causes it’s passionate for. The presidential election is certainly one of those causes for Ben and Jerry’s. Each election Ben and Jerry’s has taken a stance on a particular topic. They do this to both express something they feel like needs to be changed and also to provide the opportunity to let their customers’ voices be heard.
This year Ben and Jerry’s presented the “Here’s the Scoop” topic of “Get the Dough Out of Politics!”. They educated their customers about how too much corporate money is being spent in elections. The Supreme Court’s decision to approve Citizens United “gave corporations the green light to spend limitless sums of money to influence our elections”.
Through handing out brochures and creating educational videos, Ben and Jerry’s aimed to get people in touch with their elected representatives to file a constitutional amendment to the Supreme Court to overturn Citizens United.
Ben & Jerry’s did some more light-hearted promotions as well. Their Ameri-Cone Dream flavored ice cream, which was created by Stephen Colbert during the 2008 election, was highlighted during the election season, and the packaging was made with an election theme. They also sold a limited-time sundae made with the flavor in their stores.
Boston Market
Boston Market has also tapped into creating a campaign emulating the battle of the two political parties. During election season Boston Market hosted the “Bowl Poll”. Customers could vote on which protein, chicken or turkey, would become the main ingredient in their new Market Bowls. Chicken was the “left wing” party and turkey was the “right wing” party.
The chicken and turkey each had their own campaigns, including videos for each, similar to a presidential candidate commercials you see on TV. Each video was done in a humorous manner where they had a chicken and turkey pretending to get people’s votes and stating why each is the best choice for the Market Bowl.
Through this campaign Boston Market was able to make consumers have a voice in creating a new product. At the same time it was able to highlight it’s signature products, which are its home style, freshly cooked meats.
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Sources:
http://marketbowlpoll.com/campaign-hq.html
http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2012/10/02/7-eleven-election/?iref=allsearch
