|
|
Hi
I Should Be Happy... But I'm Not
It's a lovely, warm, sunny Spring
day as I write this. Lambs are gambolling in the fields, everything has a bright
green, fresh, healthy look to it. And despite all that, I have a heavy heart
(and not just because this is version 2 of this email... version 1 having
disappeared into oblivion when my laptop crashed grrr)
Why am I so sad? |
 |
The Nostalgia Factor
Well, I set up A Quarter Of... back in 2002
to create a nostalgic site. Somewhere that would take you back to when you ran
around in shorts, with grazed knees and scuffed shoes from playing football with
a tennis ball in the playground (woe betide you when your mum found out that
you'd been playing football in your brand new, 'best' shoes). Or when you used
to play skipping - where a group of your friends would form a sort of circle, 2
of them swinging the rope and all of them chanting some rhyme in unison while
you jumped over the rope in time (I think that’s how it worked... I was always
too busy playing footie!)
We stock the sweets that we feel will have that real nostalgia factor...
Sharps Bonbons, Pascalls Kola Kubes. You know the sort of thing. For instance,
we only stock Pascalls Sherbet Lemons... there are heaps of other sherbet lemons
around which are much, much cheaper - we'd make a lot more money if we sold
them, but they don't have that nostalgic element... they just aren't right so we
don't let them darken our doors.
Which makes us especially sad when sweets and names that we know and love are
changed in the name of 'progress'. The nostalgia factor disappears overnight.
And in the next couple of months many of the most popular sweets around are
going to change... it's such a shame.
Already in the last couple of weeks we've seen new versions of Barratts
Shrimps and Barratts Sweet Bananas. These new sweets are nice enough and all
that... but they're a sudden, big change from the sweets that they are
replacing.
Sweets Changing, Much Loved Names To Be Replaced
The names Pascalls,
Sharps
and Barker
& Dobson are being re-launched into the 'Taveners Proper Sweets' range.
Does the name 'Taveners Proper Sweets Kola Kubes' make you go slightly dreamy as
you are mentally transported back to your childhood? Me neither.
Now we are told in the blurb from the manufacturers that 'Taveners Proper
Sweets enables us to create that feeling of yesteryear with a more contemporary
approach'. If anyone can tell me what that means in a way that makes the
remotest sense please feel free to email me and let me know. I'll give a prize
to the best entry.
The Good News... In a Bad News Sandwich
Don't get me wrong, not
all of the changes are bad... not by a long chalk. Many sweets are being changed
so they contain only natural colours and flavours, non hydrogenated fat, and no
added salt - which we love. (Never let it be said that I'm not balanced in my
emails to you!!!)
When you see the new and old Barratts Shrimps together like this
(the new Shrimps are the lighter ones, with only natural colourings and
flavourings) it does make the old ones look just a tad lurid!
Leave That Tube Alone
BUT... and it’s a mahoooooooooosive but...
worst of all, they are changing one of the most popular sweets that I know of...
the Sherbet Fountain - the iconic yellow paper tube filled with sherbet and the
liquorice sticking out of the top.
It won't be like that for much longer.
From next month Sherbet
Fountains will come in a plastic resealable tube. You can see a picture of
it here. It's just not the same... it makes my heart sink.
It's like when you see modern computer generated cartoons of characters from
your childhood like that rotten modern remake of Andy Pandy that they did a few
years back. Rubbish!
I'm sure that the new packaging will keep the sweet fresher and it will be
more hygienic. But that's not the point.
They call it progress. I call it a crying shame.
What do you think? Please let us know by visiting http://www.sugarlipscandy.com/apps/forums/
or http://www.sugarlipscandy.com/guestbookpostacomment.htm telling
us. Who knows... if we get enough people protesting about the change maybe we
can get the manufacturers to think again. After all they say that Wispa was
brought back because of Internet campaigns...
Michael Parker
QuarterOf.co.UK
|
Oops!
Oops, you forgot something.