&%$# the expense - it's authentically FRENCH!

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Sunset, June 1950.

Something obviously went very wrong in their branding efforts along the way. I mean Hormel is not exactly a "premium" brand, is it. Have you looked at the Spam website lately? The mascot-du-jour is a mustachioed elbow macaroni with beady little eyes, Clippy's long lost brother.

Comments

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

The elbow macaroni is hilarious. There are some interesting eggs on there, too. (http://www.spam.com/recipes/detail/4131/barbecued-spamstuffed-meat-loaf-singles.aspx)

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

That being said, it's a kickass website ... engaging, entertaining, well-designed and functional.

[cpsings4him.livejournal.com]

Very true! It's obvious they know they are SPAM and (accordingly) don't take themselves too seriously...as well they can afford to do since they are laughing all the way to the bank! :p

[elric-dewisant.livejournal.com]

Not just that, but they're takin' names!

"If your grocer doesn't stock send us his name and..." we'll kick his $$$ until he does!!

Such language and behavior for 1950.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

OMG I wonder if there's such a thing as Spam™ spam.

[elric-dewisant.livejournal.com]

If there is, I'd buy a can, just once.

Truthfully, I kinda like the Turkey Spam, as well as the Garlic, Tabasco and Black Pepper versions. The regular stuff is just way to damn salty to be usable for anything except long sea voyages in old sail-driven English frigates.....only softer than salt pork.

All that said, Spam is a hell of a lot better tasting (nevermind the differences in texture) than Treet or Spork.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

the names of these products ... in Canada there's Prem, Klik, and Kam (Kanned Ham ... get it?)

On Mission Hill they invented "Skunch" which is so perfect it's more real than reality.

[elric-dewisant.livejournal.com]

Oh, GAK! I forgot about Prem (probably with good reason). We get that in the Dollar Stores..and you get what you pay for. Bleech!!!

Now, Klik, Kam and Skunch have me very curious.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

In Sunset magazine (http://www.sunset.com/), no less!
I grew up with that magazine in my house. It calls itself the "premier resource for achieving the ultimate Western lifestyle." Think Unhappy Hipsters West of the Rockies. My mom was entirely stuck on following their every word. It was like her bible.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

These are from my partner's grandmother's house. I'm sitting here scanning them in the very house they were delivered to in 1951. And yes, it looks like the pictures in a 1951 Sunset magazine.

[weelisa.livejournal.com]

Well, thanks to you, I just learned there was a Spam Museum - group tours available! I think the mods here should arrange a trip for us all as a reward for being good little doobies - I call shotgun on the bus (meaning I get to sit right behind the driver and tell him what he's doing wrong.)

Okay and check out the Spam Shop - you didn't know what you wanted to be for Halloween? Then order the Spam Costume - you can be the coolest kid on the block! Forget those BP Cleanup Crew or the Antoine Dodson costumes!

Now I'm off to play the Spamalot game and check out when the Spam Festival will be in town (you think I'm kidding?)...

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

The company even has a sense of humour about itself. While having sold 8 **BILLION** cans of the stuff.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

I just did some amusing calculations

1 can of spam = 340 g (minus the can of course)
8 billion cans of spam = 2 720 000 000 kg = 2 998 286.765 US tons

For comparison, the Eiffel Tower weighs 11 000 US tons. That's 273 Eiffel Towers.

[weelisa.livejournal.com]

Ewww...now I'm not going to look at the Eiffel Tower the same way, anymore...

[elric-dewisant.livejournal.com]

It's not just trashy, it's CULT!!!

[misstia]

well you had me all geared up to announce that we'd all take a trip there until i saw you'd tell the driver what he was doing wrong, as i am sure my co-mod and i would be the ones driving....

:D

[weelisa.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's nothing really. Just slow down, okay now speed up, keep to the right, okay too far, and watch out for that old lady!!!!!

You'll be fine ;p

[tanwen.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about it, I'm already driving the bus to hell so this would be a piece of cake, er, Spam!

[spuzzlightyear.livejournal.com]

Tours you say?

(runs to the Prelinger Archive)

This is Hormel:
http://www.archive.org/details/this_is_hormel

I doubt they have tours like this anymore... (prepare to gag)

[elric-dewisant.livejournal.com]

SQUEEEE! OMG, I am so downloading this!!!

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

OMG that is fabulous. thank you thank you!

... under vacuum and refrigeration ... pumped to the filling station ... hydrostatic cooking-tower ...

[howeverbrief.livejournal.com]

Haha, wow. That was kind of horrifying!

[howeverbrief.livejournal.com]

Okay, Mr. Macaroni is creeping me out.

[vp19.livejournal.com]

I wonder when Hormel discontinued making onion soup, or whether it simply converted production into institutional rather than retail use. I'm 55 years old, and can never recall seeing it in a supermarket. Spam and chili, yes; onion soup, no.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me likewise (I'm 45). The idea of Hormel as a premium brand struck me as a little ludicrous.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Authentically French? Minnesota is in France? This explains Guy Noir.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was war surplus?

[air-and-angels.livejournal.com]

I count six characters inside the quotation marks, and immediately start trying to think of a swear-word with six letters.
Do you think they did that deliberately, because if they used only four, while it could be read merely as 'damn the expense' a lot of people would have been giggling like mad assuming it was 'fuck the expense'?

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

I thought exactly the same thing! only ever heard "hang the expense" or "damn the expense" but somehow !@#$%^& just sounds dirtier.

"damn" was a taboo word in public at the time though so I suspect they might have done it to avoid controversy

[air-and-angels.livejournal.com]

Fuck the expense! Let's have Spam!

[mystical-chickn.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* I didn't even count the number of characters and read it as "fuck the expense" anyway. :p