Who do you respect as a culinary expert? A recent commercial for Campbell’s Prego brand pasta sauce used split-screen images of 12-month-old children as representatives of children who took part in a taste test, jokingly presenting them as “lifelong pasta experts.” Were these toddlers supposed to represent taste test participants, or something else? [More]
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Unilever Sells Ragu And Bertolli Brands To Japanese Company For $2.15B
By 5.22.14
The staples for a quick homemade Italian dinner are soon to be produced by a Japanese company after Unilever found a buyer for its Ragu and Bertolli Brands. [More]
Prego's Fake Lesson Plans To "Test" Thickest Sauce
By 9.20.10
Here’s a page from the history books of consumerism history: Back in the early 90’s, Prego gave out 12,000 free posters to classrooms across America containing a “lesson plan” for a “scientific” experiment in which they would test whether Prego or Ragu Old World Style was thicker. The poster came with a free slotted spoon and a coupon for a 30 oz jar of Prego. In the September 95 issue of Harper’s Magazine, David Shenk lampooned this blatant insertion of commercial messages into the classroom under the guise of learning about the scientific method: [More]
The Guy Who Invented The Idea Of Having Over 30 Flavors Of Spaghetti Sauce
By 3.17.08
Me me me me, that’s what product development and marketing is all about these days. Give people individual experiences, let them customize, and choice choice choice. It didn’t used to be that way.
