A couple of months ago I ran out of Best Foods mayonnaise, so I went to the store to get some. They didn’t have Best Foods, but they had Hellman’s. I know that Hellman’s is the brand name in the East, and Best Foods is the brand name in the West; and the product itself is the same. Last time I was at that store, I saw that they had Best Foods back. I reckoned there was either a mix-up with the distributor, or else the distributor couldn’t get Best Foods but was able to get Hellman’s.
But recently I’ve seen a couple of Hellman’s commercials. Could be that the cable company got its commercials mixed up. But it got me wondering whether there might be a name change for those of us on the Left Coast.
As far as getting the Hellman’s label, I suspect that it was due to a distributor’s actions. I’ve only seen Hellman’s labels when I go to one of the job-lots type of stores, such as Big Lots, 99 Cents Only Store, and Grocery Outlet.
As for the commercials, I’d ask what channel you were watching. Some of the channels that originate on the East Coast don’t bother to ensure that all viewers are watching geographically appropriate commercials.
Michaela used to bug me to take her to Cici’s Pizza Buffet when the nearest one was in Nebraska.
That’s what I thought. (Re: commercials, I’ve no idea where the nearest Sonic is!) It’s just that I got the Right Coast label, and then saw the Hellman’s commercials and it made me wonder.
I wish Unilever would put their own name on the front of every single one of their products, replacing whatever brand names was there before. Peoples’ heads would explode.
When Best Foods acquired the Hellmann’s brand, it was decided then that the respective recipes for both mayonnaises be preserved. Today, the two products are made in the same plant. However, at least as recently as June 2003, the recipes were almost, but not entirely, identical. From the company’s FAQs at the time:
