I'm Strong To The Finicsh, 'Cuz I Eatz Me...Bread?

Cafe Society
1

Advertising Age reports King Features Syndicate is planning to make their sailor man more common place before he turns 75 in 2004. Cartoon Network has moved his cartoons to a more decent hour Sunday night, but I guess that’s not enough, as Popeye originally was (and still is) a comic strip character (although it was first in the cartoons in which he ate spinach fer strength). But KFS thinks Popeye should be more well-known. And what better way to create awareness of Popeye than Popeye bread?

[QUOTE]
King has licensed the family of Popeye characters to Animated Foods, which in turn is pitching supermarket chains including Kroger Co., Pathmark Stores and others on iron- and calcium-fortified Popeye White Bread as well as Wimpy Hamburger Rolls, Swee’pea Wheat Bread and Olive Oyl Hot Dog Rolls. The licensing agreement calls for retailers to pay a 12.5 cent fee per bag for the Popeye packaging, which will enclose breads that retailers agree to manufacture in-house or in conjunction with a local vendor.
©2002 Crain Communications/QUOTE]

Of course, they plan to bring Popeye to other things, but bread? Sure, there are already two different Popeye spinaches, but “Popeye” and “bread” don’t really come together in my mind.

2

Since when do cartoon characters have to come together in a logical manner? Scooby-Doo and various Disney characters can be found in little bite sized fruit chewies. The X-Men made an appearance in canned pasta. Jurassic Park dinosaurs made their way into cheese crackers.

Basically they just want their products to be associated with something people recognize. I don’t know many kids that like Popeye these days but I suppose adults are the ones actually doing all the buying.

Marc

3

You’ve got a point.

King Features says they chose bread because it’s a simple product everyone buys. They’re right, you know. I’m surprised Disney never thought of a Mickey Mouse Bread long ago.

4

They probably have, but tend to limit that to around the resorts. Just off the top of my head (since I haven’t been to a theme park in oh, 24 hours), I can think of several Mickey-themed products you can purchase:

  • Mickey pasta (pasta in the shape of Mickey faces)
  • Mickey gummies**
  • Mickey Museli

And you can get waffle irons that will produce the said icon, as well as toast presses [(looks like a cookie cutter - press it into the bread and it will produce an image (Mickey face is untoasted, rest of bread is browned)].
** the gummy bears chewey stuff in the shape of Mickey heads - I like to bite off one ear and annouce “Look! Mickey van Gogh!”

5

The cook at my favorite watering hole wore a Spongebob Squarepants t-shirt last week. The shirt had just 'bob’s eyes and mouth, enlarged to fill the shirt. In the store, I couldn’t see the appeal. On a woman, though, he’s got his eyes in the right place.
:slight_smile:

6

Well, Popeye Bread doesn’t make much sense, but Wimpy Hamburger Rolls makes perfect sense, you must admit! I can see my dad buying those.

They make a Disney juice drink now. They also used to make Donald Duck orange juice–perhaps they still do, but I haven’t seen it for a long time.

When I was a kid in Montana, there was a brand of bread (Sweetheart?) that featured Peanuts characters. My mom always bought Roman Meal, though.

7

Chef Boyardee X-Men… I loved those. This was the only food I ever really played with. I seriously played games with the little X-Men pasta shapes as if they were action figure toys. Usually the X-Men won, but depending on the villian in the can I was eating, sometimes the bad guy came out on top.

RE: The OP, it doesn’t surprise me. It’s just licensing – a way for both parties to make more money. C’est la vie. Well, c’est la vie de capitalism, anyway.