iStockphoto / Snezhana Kudryavtseva
Goldfish Crackers has just rolled out the dumbest stunt of the year. The snack for toddlers is temporarily rebranding itself to ‘Chilean Sea Bass Crackers’ in a supposed attempt to appeal to adults when in reality, all they are doing is getting people to talk about Goldfish Crackers for a few days.
Chilean Sea Bass is a very intentional choice of names. The Patagonian Toothfish or Antarctic Toothfish had, for decades, struggled to find footing on the global market despite being a delicious fish in the kitchen.
That was until the 1970s when some clever marketers came along and rebranded the Patagonian Toothfish as the ‘Chilean Sea Bass’ and its popularity exploded worldwide to the point that it is now classified as overfished in some regions. It’s one of the food industry’s most famous cases of rebranding success so it isn’t surprising at all that Goldfish Crackers would try and piggyback off that success except it’s really just stupid.
Goldfish
Goldfish Crackers are for kids. Do adults enjoy them? Sure. They are tasty. But there comes a time when they become repulsive to every adult and for me that moment was sometime in the past 5 or so years.
Once you become a parent and have to suffer through your child eating Goldfish Crackers nonstop, multiple times a day, every day, and you see those nasty crackers up in their mouth all the time… They become revolting. Finding Goldfish everywhere in a car seat…. Disgusting. The crumbs are never ending.
This is not an adult snack even if they temporarily change the name to Chilean Sea Bass Crackers because Denver’s AOR creative agency landed the account and came up with this idea, according to AdAge:
Vice President of Goldfish, Danielle Brown, says “we know the love for Goldfish spans all ages. Chilean Sea Bass is a playful nod to adults that the iconic fish-shaped snack is for grown-up tastes too.”
Nothing else is changing. The flavor will be the same. The shape will be the same. But I assure you, toddlers will say ‘absolutely NOT’ when they see a different name on the package because kids are creatures of habit and they’ll be the first to recognize the new label in the pantry.
They are available now, at ChileanSeaBassCrackers.com, for $7.38 for 2 bags on the website. Save your money. Go buy adult snacks.