Isnack2.0

Historians will identify the end of last week as the moment when a question asked through the ages – has the world gone mad? – was finally and categorically answered in the affirmative by the Heene family of Colorado.

Authorities now say Richard Heene and his wife plotted to hoax the world into thinking their six-year-old son Falcon was stuck inside a runaway balloon contraption in order to increase their chances of getting on a reality TV show.

But instead of getting on TV Heene could be going to jail, possibly depriving the children who were central to the alleged plot a father for a good deal of time. And all because, apparently, he wanted a little bit of money and fame.

Continue reading "The age of the media hoax" »

So the new name for Vegemite iFail ver. 3.1 is finalised and we can at last put this brand-rape of a national icon behind us.

Cheesybite. There. It’s done. And let us thank gawd they didn’t go with Creamymate (which received six per cent of the vote and sounds like a menu option at a brothel).

Anyway, let us celebrate this new name by going and buying a nice big jar of the original (ver 1.0) and be happy.

Continue reading "Vegemite: how you eat it is what counts" »

You’re locked in a room with a small team and a big decision to make.

Everyone is hanging on your ruling. Which way will they go? What are the ramifications? The announcement will be carried by the national media as soon as its made.

No, you’re not the Reserve Bank board - you’re the marketing team at Kraft.

Continue reading "And you think you’re having a stressful day" »

WHAT’S in a name? Everything - especially if you pick a dud one - as any marketing graduate will tell you.

So why did Kraft put its reputation and that of one of Australia’s best known brands on the line by selecting a ridiculous name like iSnack2.0 for a new variety of Vegemite?

That’s what many Australians have been asking themselves since the infamous iSnack2.0 moniker was unveiled just over a week ago and then, within days, dumped after a rally of public disapproval.

Continue reading "iSnack 2.0 was a lesson in giving love a bad name" »

Was the doomed trade name iSnack 2.0 really the choice of an open competition or was Kraft up to something craftier?

The trade name for the Vegemite-based spread, which was abandoned today amid a hail of ridicule, was registered in Hong Kong two weeks before the competition closed, The Punch can reveal.

Kraft registered iSnack2.0 along two other trade names, Snackerific and Crackertime, on July 30. The competition closed on August 14.

Continue reading "iSnack was a registered name before Kraft closed comp" »

The good people at Kraft have just released the following press release announcing that they are scrapping the name iSnack2.0 for their new spin-off spread and holding another competition.

We’ve run their statement in full - and we want to know from Punch readers - has this whole exercise been one big con job?

30 September 2009: Kraft Foods Australia/New Zealand has today announced that it will change the name of the new Vegemite. Since the new Vegemite hit supermarket shelves in July 2009, Australians and New Zealanders have been invited to come up with a name for the new product; just as Australians did when Vegemite was first launched in this country in 1923.

Continue reading "Vegemitegate: was it all one massive con job?" »

What would happen if everyone followed Kraft’s lead and decided to rebadge great Australian brands with whimsical zeitgeist names? Perhaps something like this. (If you haven’t come across it, “FTW!” means for “For the Win!” and is an expression of approval. Find out more here.)

Penbo wrote about the iSnack 2.0 debacle here today and it has kicked off a most amusing set of comments including one reader who complained the new product was incompatible with Toast 9.0.

Anyway, potentials for Penfold’s Grange, Akubra, and R.M. Williams are over the jump. Suggestions in the comments, please - you can offer new slogans for Aussie brands or email your own poorly-Photoshopped offerings to photos (at) thepunch.com.au.

Continue reading "Other Aussie brands get the iSnack2.0 treatment" »

Someone’s seen the funny side of the iSnack 2.0 national disaster. This is worth watching all the way to the end.

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" »