Brands

The above headline is a Vegemite-free reworking of Men At Work’s “Down Under”, shamelessly pilfered from Twitter as an example of the hundreds of negative and abusive comments being directed at Kraft over the iSnack2.0 debacle.

On current projections the iSnack2.0 disaster will be taught for years to come in marketing courses as a step-by-step example of how to upset everybody - the oldies who are fiercely loyal to Vegemite in its existing incarnation, and the youngsters who regard the internet-driven name of this (woeful) new brand as patronising gimmickry, akin to Sorbent trying to corner the youth market with a “hip and groovy” new toilet tissue called iShit.

AS any student of yeast-based food extracts can attest, the history of sandwich spreads is a volatile one where passions run high and careers, even entire companies, have risen and fallen on the back of their marketing campaigns.

Continue reading "He just smiled and gave me a iSnack2.0 sandwich" »

When Ben Hannant appeared at his door this week to reveal he had played Origin while suffering from swine flu, he wasn’t only sending shivers down the spines of league fans. A lot of surfers would have felt a pang of anxiety too. Not because of any fears about the Origin series, but because Hannant was photographed in a hoodie with a surf label emblazoned across the chest.

There’s nothing wrong, per se, with footy boof heads pulling on a surf label. Australian surf companies have clad most of the free world in reasonably stylish, affordable clothes, and for footy players to feel part of this phenomenon is perfectly understandable.

Continue reading "Boofhead league players shouldn’t surf on my wave" »