Commercial
when I was a kid taunted us with the pleasures of an adult candy.
It
was right there in the theme song… the candy was too good for
kids.
(And
I apologize right now to those of you old enough to be humming
the Toffifay theme song.)
Basically,
even with a few different commercials, the premise was the same.
An adult, say a grandparent, would be enjoying a candy. When approached
by a child looking for someone to share, the adult would sing
about all of the pleasures that were just too great for a kid
to truly appreciate. The punchline… the closing… would be when
our grandfather would explain that it wasn’t too good for their
grandchild though, and offers a piece up for enjoyment.
I
feel a bit silly admitting this, but in my youth, I fell for the
commercial. It was catchy, I could never recall having tried it
at that time, and I found myself wanting to find Toffifay when
the opportunity next arose. Heck, wasn’t I good enough for it?
I’d like to think I was. Eventually I was in a store with one
of my parents, and an offer to grab one thing from the candy section
was made, and I spotted Toffifay, and…
Yawn.
I
don’t want to make too much out of it, but I wasn’t overwhelmed.
Should be right in my favorites zone… caramel, nuts, chocolate…
everything seems there. And I recall thinking it was ok. But that
was about it. It was ok. Definitely not a Milky Way or Reese’s
Peanut Butter Cup. (But, hey, what is?) Definitely not a new favorite.
Experience
accomplished, Toffifay disappeared from my thoughts. Probably
had some once or twice around the time just to confirm the results,
but it never became anything I would seek out, crave, or in any
way be thinking about ahead of spotting the wrapper. As a result…
not being one of those major always-in-front-of-you brands, it
still existed and was available but just kind of drifted into
the realm of never thought about stuff. Even the commercials dropped
from regular rotation.
A
few weeks ago, Toffifay had an ad on television. As I saw it,
I chuckled, and near the end of the commercial muttered: “…but
not too good for me!” Tigg was working on something in a nearby
chair, looked up and toward me, then asked what the heck I was
mumbling about.
She
got the good-old-days-sharing-grandparent story about the candy,
all while she claimed that she had no idea what Toffifay was.
Probably fair enough.
Have
you heard about Crunch?
Ads
lately. Nestle Crunch bars are being advertised as Crunch. Kind
of tossed me a bit. Iconic, right? Full name. Nestle Crunch bars.
But corporate changes and business sales… and the shorter version
of the story is a company you may have heard of (but likely will
claim you haven’t) called Ferrero taking over the Nestle candy
business.
Word
has been that packaging, branding, and… well, let’s just summarize
it as everything from the packaging to the naming of products
like Nestle Crunch is starting to change. (One even deeper word
is the recipe and ingredients for Butterfinger candy will be changing.)
My
reaction to a lot of this? Well… New Coke is a great way of thinking
about it. It’s not that I’m resistant to change. Like most everyone
I suppose, I pause for a moment when I hear suggestions of change
on the way. In these cases, we’re talking about iconic… accepted…
recognizable brands and names and tastes, so why even dare suggest
a thought of attempting a new-and-improved effort around it products.
New Coke should be a warning consideration before tinkering begins.
In
the end, I’ve come to realize that much of this candy thinking
is similar to the Toffifay situation for me. It’s been a long
time since I’ve bought a Nestle Crunch bar. Of the most recent
purchases, I’d get them when thinking about making s’mores, as
a source of chocolate in the treat that brought something different
to a few of them on a summer evening with friends. Hard to stand
up and shout against change though when there is a solid argument
that if it hadn’t been an advertisement on television, I wouldn’t
have noticed the name change for years.
I
wonder if my tastes have changed. Been quite a while since I’ve
tried Toffifay. Would it be more memorable, more WOW for me, if
I tried it today? Don’t know. I suppose we’ll need to see what
happens the next time I’m in a store and thinking about a possible
candy purchase.