May 8, 2026 • 51 mins
This franchise has spawned a bounty of food- and drink-related merchandise and licensed products, from mundane to amusing to of dubious propriety. Anney and Lauren have a bad feeling about some of the strangest culinary tie-ins from the history of Star Wars.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Savor Prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reece.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we have an episode
for you about Star Wars marketing, tie ins and licensed
food products and stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
A very wide category. Indeed, yes, one I'm extremely excited
to talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Oh yeah, I know you are.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yes, well, I absolutely know the answer to this one,
but I will ask it anyway as this tradition. Was
there any particular reason this topic was on your mind?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Lauren, Yeah, yeah, there was so so so it is.
It is the month of May, sometimes known as Star
Wars Month. You know, we've got May the fourth, as
in May the fourth be with you, We've got oh gosh,
what's what's the fifth?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Uh? It's May the fifth, but May the sixth. People
argue which one it should be? Revenge of the fifth,
Revenge of the sixth? Excuse me? Oh okay, okay, But
the entire month is this is the May, like this
is the way from the Mandalorian.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Oh okay, okay, uh huh.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
And also all of the first six movies came out
around May twenty fifth, around Memorial Day. Okay, it's a
big Star Wars month.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, yeah, we are both fans of Star Wars. If
you didn't know, I would. I would hazard to say
that Annie is a little bit deeper into the fandom
than I am. If you've never seen photos of Annie's
cosplay of it's like.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
A Mark Hamill cosplay. Technically it's not.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Even really a Luke Skywalker cosplay.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah, well, well, I guess this is the fun thing
slash headache inducing things, slash makes me want to scream
into a pillow thing, depending on what it is.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Thing about Star Wars cannon is we don't know what
Star Wars cannon is. Who knows what it is. It's
very wild West, and it especially was in the early days.
Oh yeah, which we're going to get into a little bit.
But the cosplay I do, I call it disco Luke Skywalker.
It was a German an appearance Mark Haniell did on
(02:26):
a German television show wherein he's in what looks like
an Abba astronaut cosplay from the seventies, like gold is
all gold, it's all golden may It's it's very eigh catching.
That's a good word for it, thank you. But it
(02:49):
was a Star Wars based segment. However, I would forgive
you for watching what you can still find of it
online not understanding that at all the connection there.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, well okay, it's a great costume, is what I'm saying. Yeah,
oh no yet, thank you. Yeah. Yeah, so if y'all
have not witnessed that, you should.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
But but yeah, so we're we're excited to talk about this.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
It's just a goofy, goofy little little episode that we
were like, yeah, let's celebrate, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
And there is a lot, as we said, because we're
a food show, we were a little limited, even though
there's plenty of plenty of times and products, but a
lot more kind of boring.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, it's just it's like, oh there's more pez dispensers. Cool, right,
you know.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Right, But I do love and I know Laura knows this.
One of my favorite things to think about is what
Darth Vader would think about his image and being used
for all of these products.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, right, because you know that suit is you know,
that's he's not having a good time in there, right,
Like generally speaking, that's a symbol of his of his
mutilation and journey to the dark side.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Uh. And I also think he ideally, I would want
to be intimidating instead of on waffles, waffle iron, or
on toilet paper. I have a friend who this is
like every day I get a message from her text
that's just a picture she's found of some bizarre Star
(04:35):
Wars item, and it's usually dark Vader really yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Because yeah, because Anakin is so yeah, he's he's real
titchy about these kind of things, you.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Know, Yeah, there is something kind of fun about that.
But yeah, I think we found some very stellar examples.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
For this pun absolutely intended. H If you want to,
you can see our prior episodes about Star Wars related
foods and merchandise. I think we've talked about them a
few different times in Listener Mail episodes, but definitely we
cover things in the Popcorn Bucket episode and also our
(05:19):
fictional foods episode about Star Wars, which is from twenty nineteen.
So there have been plenty of things to talk about
since then.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
But and this is the first year there will be
a Star Wars movie theater since then. Oh man, yeah,
so it is it. It's a big Star Wars time.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, yeah, gosh.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, We've definitely touched on several and several instances. But
I suppose that brings us to our question, sure, Star
Wars merchandise, what is it? Well, Star Wars.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Star Wars is, of course a galactic sized media franchise
with films and TV shows and books and comics and
games and theme park attractions of plenty, such that it's
really only been out of like the like pop culture
public's eye briefly since the first film first debuted in
(06:24):
nineteen seventy seven, and since the beginning it has been
heavily merchandised and licensed. And I find this to be
a really fascinating case study really because like franchise creator
George Lucas famously took a pay cut for directing that
first film in exchange for securing the rights to the
(06:44):
merch and licensing from the studio from Fox. So you've
got this creator who is probably more financially motivated than
any other pop culture creator in history. To Milk to
Blue Milk the heck out of their own creations in
terms of like goods and tie ins and collectibles and
(07:06):
all of that. It is all managed through the staff
at Lucasfilm, his production company, like like George himself, is
an out there brokering deals with like Kellogg's or whatever.
But yeah, so, yeah, so we've seen waves of this
kind of stuff over the years, generally timed with major
media releases in the franchise, and we see that kind
(07:29):
of thing with all kinds of properties these days. But
like to be clear, Star Wars blazed that trail, like
we see it all the time now in no small
part because of these success Star Wars had with it.
Like did you know that Star Wars was the first
media franchise that Lego licensed ever, that was in nineteen
(07:52):
ninety nine to coordinate with the prequel trilogy coming out.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
A big marketing push with that one.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
There was, yep, gotta cover it a little bit here
and there. Yeah, when the sequel trilogy started coming out
in twenty fifteen, Stephen Colbert ran a segment on The
Late Show called may the forced marketing integration be with You?
(08:21):
Which I appreciate because yeah, they really would and still
will slap a Star War on anything, honestly, though, Like
shout out to whoever decided to co brand grapes and
oranges for Force Awakens, Like just like a package of
green seedless grapes with Yoda on the label, or like
(08:45):
a bag of oranges with BB eight on it? Sure, genius?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah? Why not? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
One of these things is very green and one of
these things is very round, and here we are.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
What am I to make of it? Though? What am
I eating? When I eat a Yoda labeled grape?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I'm I don't want to think that hard about that one.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Thanks Stephen. Colbert actually recently did another segment about grogu
baby Yoda Vanilla wafers is doing it and they're like
little blue vanilla wafers, And he asked the question, are
(09:30):
these his eggs? Are they his? What of the right? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Is this Dan Driff? What's going on?
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Sure? I think it's because he ate those macaroon looking
cookies looking cookies in the Mandalorian. But who knows?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Who knows, couldn't couldn't tell you, No.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
We may never know. Well, what about the nutrition? Don't
don't eat licensing deals? Also?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Possibly don't eat these products in some cases. I can't
tell you what to do though.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That's true. Good point, Lauren. Okay, Well, we do have
some numbers for you. We do, all right.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
As of twenty twelve, the Star Wars franchise had made
around eight point two billion dollars in ticket sales and
home entertainment media sales. Okay, at that time they had
made over twenty billion dollars in licensed goods. Woh huh,
(10:41):
more than twice as much.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
And I couldn't I couldn't find a good source for
current numbers. They were a little.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Bit all over the place.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
But suffice it to say that that licensing is still
worth a lot more than the actual media.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yes, may or may not have gotten into some fights
with people about this. I think they're right. But you know,
if you didn't like the Ewoks, there's pretty obvious reason
the Ewoks were in Return of the Jedi.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Oh yeah, No, they made adorable children's toys.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yep, yep, that's it. Yeah. But also they were vicious
and I'm pretty sure ate human flesh.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
So yeah, I love an Ewok.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Oh I too too. That's why the argument happens. I
agree with the Yes, it was to sell toys, but
but also.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
I mean the factor in the eating of human flesh.
And I'm like, yeah, they're pretty cool guys, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, definitely, we are totally normal people just appreciating a
species on another planet.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, and look, they mostly ate storm troopers from what
I can tell. So you know, I don't know if
Leo Organo is in particular danger from them, but.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Well Luke and Han and Chewie might have been. But yeah,
that was fine because she had the granola barbs. Very
nice to offer it to Wicket. To the Ewok, I
love this. Sometimes I feel like I'm speaking a different language.
And for listeners who are familiar with this, what are
you saying? Annie, It's okay. Yeah, just just know there
(12:38):
are reasons, I think to the Ewok's decisions.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yes, there you go, Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
But I suppose this brings us to some of the
examples we want to get into.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yes, yeah, but first it brings us to a quick
break for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. So
as we are coming fresh off of Star Wars day,
may the fourth be with you. I do want to
say a lot of companies, including food and beverage companies,
simply put out a social media post or give a
product a temporary pun name, or offer something in a
(13:34):
Star Wars shape, but plenty go above and beyond. Oh yeah,
oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
And it's not that some of those can't be fun
like like like in nineteen eighty three, timed around a
Return of the Jedi coming out, Kellogg's offered C.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Three pos as a cereal.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yes, because they're because they're OK, because they're O shaped
and it's three three P you get it, you get
it or like And I don't know if this one
was meant to be as clever as it was, but
like for the Solo movie dropping in twenty eighteen, Solo
Cups put their Solo Cups in Solo branded packaging. I
(14:14):
don't know, I just love it.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
That's a popular cosplay at Dragon Con as well. Ah,
it's a Han Solo with a Solo cup around the
Solo cup adorable. It's very good.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Adorable and yeah. Like So, just to get an idea
of the current landscape, as I was preparing the notes
for this, I just clicked around the internet a little bit.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
And so.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Here's a little cross section of Star Wars licensed and
branded food related products currently available in stores. Okay, you've
got Jeoffrey's coffee brand, Precious Cargo blend, Yeah with a
Mandalorian Yeah, Precious Cargo, different company, entirely Bones Coffees, Wookie
(15:09):
Cookie flavored Blend. It's flavored like chocolate chip cookies, Archer Brand,
Mandalorian and Grogu meat jerky snacks. Okay, I don't know, man.
There's a popcorn maker shaped like the Death Star, a
waffle maker shaped like the Millennium Falcon, light up lightsaber chopsticks,
(15:31):
light sabers, salt and pepper mills, pork shaped salt and
pepper shakers, Grogu gummy frogs, and a heart shaped box
of chocolates. And on the cover there's an illustration of
two storm troopers and Darth Vader reaching out to force
choke you.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
And it's a reusable tin. So that's collectible.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I have that. I'm embarrassed of how many of these
I have.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Amazing love it, but yeah, just to say it's everywhere,
I mean, you know, like you can buy like a
Williams Sonoma Star Wars Breakfast gift crate that includes themed
pancake molds and its spatula shaped like Vader's helmet. Yeah,
it's just it's it's out there if you wish to
find it.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
This is making me wish I had gone through my
kitchen and just it wouldn't been too long A list.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Send me pictures. I'll see if I can share some.
I also do want to say that since the theme parks,
since Disney started really leaning into Star Wars at theme parks,
it's gotten intense over there as well. Like there's for
May this year a bunch of new food and drink.
Many items dropped. My favorites from Orlando's parks based on
(16:53):
the photos I have not gone recently. Based on the
photos are some like cinnamon sugar lotus root chips I get.
I guess they have like a Star Wars themed name,
but like they just look alien. I don't know. Give
them something to buy.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Here we go.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
They have some chios that are dyed either red or blue,
like red or blue sugar on the churros that come
in a little cardboard holder printed like a lightsaber handle.
And then they've got rechargeable light up lightsaber shaped swizzle
sticks that come in in either green in a Chosen
(17:32):
One cooler which is like a green Apple statement crean
lime drink, or in red in a sth Lord libation,
which is a blood orange craan lime drink.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I don't know why that sounded so nefarious to me,
but it did.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, you can also throw back to our popcorn bucket episode.
You can now purchase a popcorn bucket shaped to like
three pos salvaged head. Wow or I guess it's just
a protocol droid's salvaged head. Yes, more silver than gold
(18:16):
toned in color.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
But I see I have the R two D two
pop popcorn bucket.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, it's cute.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Oh yeah, AR two is adorable, the.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Best, the best. I mean, I feel like I'm just
going to be throwing out these examples throughout this episode.
I do. I will say, in my defense, not that
there's anything wrong with purchasing collecting. Yeah. Sure, most of
this has been gifted to me. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah, once people figure out that you kind of have
a thing, if it's something as predominant as Star Wars.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Oh yeah yeah. So I have the R two D
two popcorn It I believe is not available anymore. I
wouldn't say it's vintage. I don't know where's from, but
I think it was an eBay purchase.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Okay, okay, yes, but it is well it is cute, Okay,
but anyway, Okay, let's let's go over that's just a
smattering of what's going on right now, Let's go over
a few of like the greatest hits.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yes, and let us start with Burger King because Burger
King has a long history of partnering with Star Wars
to offer a variety of products. In nineteen seventy seven,
the same year the first film came out, Burger King
was allegedly the first fast food company to run a
movie promotion. They offered four drinking glasses in a cross
(19:46):
promotion with Coca Cola, which, thanks to a friend of mine,
I own they are pretty cool. Darth Vader explained the
whole promotion in an ad, which is so thing. I
also adore how many times he showed up an ad.
They ran the same promotion when Impire Strikes Back and
(20:08):
Return of the Jedi came out, so nineteen eighty nineteen
eighty three.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Interestingly to me, they were not the only fast food
chain to do a tie in in nineteen seventy seven
with Coca Cola. So tie in tie for first Yeah,
because rival brand Burger Chef was giving away a free
poster with the purchase of a large coke and there
(20:34):
were four different designs. They also ran a TV ad
for the promotion where like three PO and R two
go up to a Burger Chef counter and ask for
a poster, and like, the nice lady explains the promotion
to them, and then Vader shows up, so they leave
before they actually get it. But I don't know if
droids can drink soda, so I think it's fine.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Let's not think too hard about the logic.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
No no, no, no no. And this campaign was apparently successful
because later in that year, Burger Chef offered what I
think is the first fast food kids meal with Star
Wars tie in. The meals came in these boxes that
had seven different boxes that had these like printed paperboard
craft kits for making different droids and ships. If you're like,
(21:23):
what the heck was Burger Chef. By the way, it
was this big chain in the sixties and seventies, but
their corporate overlord, General Foods sold them to Hearties in
the eighties, which then converted or closed the brand's restaurants.
So yeah, but they were a big deal at the time.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
I was wondering thank you film. In one of the
more bizarre marketing campaigns Burger King embarked upon, a German
branch offered free whoppers leading up to the release of
the twenty nineteen film The Rise of Skywalker if they
downloaded the Burger King app read aloud Star Wars spoilers
(22:00):
obtained via online sources. The man behind this campaign said
he quote wanted to challenge people's Whopper love and put
it to the ultimate test by asking them to choose
between their love of our flagship product and their love
for the most epic sci fi movie ever. To avoid lawsuits,
(22:22):
they avoided using specific Star Wars terms, so, for example,
Chewbacca was called the Hairy Roaring Creature. A lot of
their predictions, sourced from the internet did pan out, though,
like quote the Young Sword Lady is the grandchild of
the Old Hoodie Villain and the quote Hairy Roaring Creature
(22:45):
is accidentally killed by the Young Sword Lady but actually
survives Wow's house.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yes, huh.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Hopefully if you haven't seen it, you don't really know
what that means in the.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Spoilers, and it doesn't Yeah, it doesn't matter, you.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Know, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
I shall forever just call him the old hoodie Villain. Now,
that's uh, yeah, that's pretty excellent. That's pretty excellent.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
This year, for the May sixth release of the film,
the Mandalorian named Grogu Burger King debuted Mandalorian based food items,
but also like the King hat. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yeah, so so Burger King does this little king crown
that you can I mean, it's mostly for children, but
I'm pretty sure they'll give one to you if you ask.
But yeah, and they're usually printed you know, like a
like a crown, you know, like like gold with little
gems in it. Right, but yeah, for for this, uh,
one has like Grogu's face on it, and one is
(23:49):
like a Mandalor is like the Mandalorian's helmet, but just
you know, cut out of a a in a crown shape.
It's really weird and I feel like, earnestly it's kind
of disrespectful Mandalorian culture.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yes, especially because the whole mandol Or plot line with him.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah. Look, anyway, I'm so.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
I apologize to any poor Burger King employee that's had
to hear this complaint. I hope, I hope, I hope.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
No one is giving anyone at that level slack about this.
That's inappropriate. Absolutely, I hope.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Be nice to your servers.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yes, they can't control this was not their decision, no
way above their heads. No, they might agree with you
in fact anyway. So here's a quote from brand innovators
dot com. The lineup includes a BBQ Bounty Whopper sandwich
in a helmet shaped cartan, Grogu's Blue Cookie Shake, a
vanilla soft syrup blended with blue sugar cookie syrup, Grogu's
(24:53):
Garlic Chicken Fries, Imperial Cheddar Ranch tots. The QSR has
also created four co cups and a Mandalorian themed junior
meal with movie inspired toys.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
QSR I meaning quick service restaurant, if you're if you're
not familiar with that lingo, I like that. I explained that,
And I'm not going to go into detail about wicket, but.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Yeah, I read a little bit more about all of this.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
The sandwich, the the aforementioned barbecue Bounty Whopper is a
burger topped with Swiss cheese, crispy pickle chips, bacon, lettuce,
and tomato, and is and I quote from Burger King
smothered in creamy bounty barbecue sauce.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Okay, okay, I.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Don't know what that means.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
No me either.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
It looked to be it looked to be like a
kind of like like if you mixed some like weeet
dark style barbecue sauce with like some MAO that looked
like the concept.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Okay, I do wonder about the ideation behind these meetings.
If I had to come up with what I thought
would be a BBQ bounty sauce, I don't know. Maybe
this is a fun thought experiment I should embark upon.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah maybe not.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Maybe I'd take that will consume all my time in
a way that's not helpful at all. But I think
the meetings must be interesting. I was reading people talking
about trying these items, and I'm pretty sure the overall
opinion was pretty positive. It was like, either it's fine
(26:49):
or pretty good.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Oh that's great, that's better than average for a lot
of these tie ins exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
But listeners write it and let us know if you
tried it. Oh yeah, any of that. So moving on
from Burger King, although I'm sure they were involved in this,
well obviously the collectible part. But we're gonna briefly touch
on collectibles and contests that were food related with Star
Wars because a lot of companies have offered some kind
(27:20):
of Star Wars collectible or a chance at a Star
Wars prize, and I want to reiterate that this was
a huge thing that the Star Wars franchise was a
pretty early trail blazer in I remember me personally. I
won an episode one backpack that was cool as heck
(27:41):
from a pack of Doritos when the that movie came out,
and I hate so many Doritos. I'm sure it was
not cost effective at all, But I wanted a prize.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
But you wanted that backpack, yeah, Or you wanted something, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Did, But the backpack was a pretty good prize, and
I'm so angry I donated it, like because the prequels
weren't cool, so I gave it away. But it was
a cool backpack and I wish I had it to
this day anyway. One of the earliest examples of this
kind of promotion was also from nineteen seventy seven, when
(28:13):
bags of premium Wonderbread contained sixteen Star Wars trading cards.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah it's again. It comes in waves with pretty much
every movie coming out, Like I think my one merch
story for this episode is that I have a plastic
spoon where like the handle is shaped like a lightsaber
handle and the spoon bit is clear and at one
point it lit up, but definitely it got washed improperly
and does not do that anymore. A friend sent it
(28:41):
to me in the early two thousands after receiving it
in a Kellogg's cereal box. I'm pretty sure. So one
one collectible that I wanted to mention that's food related.
So in twenty fifteen, again, when the sequel trilogy started
(29:04):
coming out, Falcon Toys released this vinyl figurine. That is,
the figurine is a frosted pop tart that is also
Han solo frozen carbonite like like Han is like grincing
out at you from the vinyl frosting. Really uh huh
(29:29):
and coming full circle for pop tarts. This is from
a line of collectibles from Falcon called pop Art. So
here we are, Here we are. You can see our
pop Tarts episode for more about that. Yes, certa uh
and okay, one more, one more. There is, or perhaps
has been, a toaster that will toast the word Star Wars,
(29:52):
like in the Star Wars font on your bread. Okay,
but that makes it sound normal. The toaster in question
was housed inside a replica of Vader's helmet, so like
you take off the top of the helmet, like like
the helmet is just sitting on your counter in your kitchen,
and you can take the top off and stick bread
in where his skull would be.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
The fires of mooset Afar still burning inside.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Oh no, wow, thos.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Of all the things that Anakin would disapprove of, I
feel like that'd be high up there. He's like, that's
just rude, y'all, that is impolite.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yeah, yeah, that's I can see. He's got a point.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Not wrong about that.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
No one final one from me, because I still have these. Okay.
Taco Bell really leaned into episode one and they have
collectible cups, and it was more of the lid at
the top was collectible, but you'd get these. They were
(31:08):
pretty decent sized, like not a small little top, but.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You're making a gesture like it's maybe like six inches
or something like that.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yeah, okay, yeah, and they would you screw it on
to the top of your cup and it would be
like Subulba, which is minor character but uh jar jar,
who were about to talk about, But yeah, you would go.
I would go to Taco Bell and try to get
there's four of them, try to get these leads and
(31:41):
I still have them. Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness, okay, well,
well this brings us to one of my favorite things. Yeah,
I love this. In two thousand and three, a Chilean
television channel air the original Star Wars without any ad breaks.
(32:04):
Sounds great. However, that did not mean there were no ads. Nope, No,
they just got really creative instead incorporating the beer Servesic
cristal into the film. It's really jarring and hilarious.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
So, for instance, the scene where obi Wan is going
to give Luke his father's lightsaber and a new hope.
He's preaching into the chest that houses the lightsaber, and
instead he finds a bottle of Servasa crystal, and the jingle,
which is loud and jarring and quite funny in this context,
(32:43):
just plays out and then the film continues.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
The film continues off as though nothing has happened, that's
out of the ordinary.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Yes, I just kind of love that. It's like your
dad would want me to share this with you. And
it's beer. It's beer, it's beer. In another scene from
Return of the Jedi, the Emperor reaches for a bottle
of Servasic cristyle. Just as the jingle cuts in. Luke
reaches for one, and Empire strikes back during his training
(33:15):
with Yoda, which fair I feel like you would have
was putting through the loop. Yeah he deserves that one.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yes, there are no lines or actors in these snippets
that are like skits. Yeah, yeah, just a hand reaching
for a beer. And the music and the ad campaigns
had names like the Force Is with Gristal Beer. If
you have never seen these, they are glorious. I do
(33:46):
feel bad for people where this was their first experiencing them.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Like the Star Wars movies the first experience. Yeah, yeah,
because like like really takes you right out of like
drum bad moments of the films.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Very dramatic moments. But I did. I loved them so
much that I had a Surveisa Crystal Beer, like I
got what. I got the label for a beer bottle
for my Star Wars cosplay last year so I could
carry it around. The memes are fantastic too, so good.
A lot of people pointed out how hilarious this would
(34:24):
be if this was the only version that you had
ever seen and no one knew what you were talking about,
Like if you were like, that's kind of weird that one.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Scene, yeah, with the beer and everyone else is going
what art?
Speaker 1 (34:37):
I don't recall the canteena scene. The ad agency behind
this whole thing, OMD Santiago, was the recipient of a
two thousand and four award at the Cannes International Advertising Festival.
George Lucas reportedly was not a fan of this Wie
No and lucasfilm pursued legal act. The campaign did not
(35:02):
air again, but it was too late. People knew about it. Yeah,
I was out there forever. Yes, yes, so they didn't
play it again. I don't think they got in trouble
beyond that, but they did get this award.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Oh my goodness. Well, okay, all right, that is indubitably strange.
I will say some of the licensing items are licensed
items that have gotten attention over the years, probably like
just sound weird outside of their intended market. Though, like
back in twenty fifteen, again the sequel trilogy was coming out.
(35:43):
One Attila Naggie, Naggie, I didn't look up how to
pronounce their name. A Hungarian correspondent for Gizmoto dropped this
photo essay of a smattering of tie in products that
like they just went and found in supermarkets around town.
And these included like fairly straightforward products that you could
probably find here, like you know, frozen chicken nuggets, like
(36:04):
flavored waters, stuff like that, plus more surprising items like
Star Wars branded super sweet canned corn or uh, Star
Wars toy gra cream like in like a plastic sheath
tube like a breakfast sausage, or Star Wars chicken frankfurters
(36:27):
with a core of ketchup filling like a like a
little red light saber in in your hot dog.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Oh no, kaiber crystal waiting to be corrupted. I that's fascinating.
I would love if other listeners from other countries would
write in.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Oh yeah, yeah, because right, and you know, like like
like we just like in the United States, we just
don't have toy gras cream in tubes that you can buy,
Like that's not really a thing that you can purchase here,
So it sounds really weird. And also like I'm positive
that someone has put a Star War on canned vegetables
here in the US, but like it's just a little
(37:11):
it's like, no, that's not the first thing you would
think of.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah, I also think of like Coca Cola.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Right, like cookies and candy and sodas, like stuff like that. Yeah, yeah,
like stuff marketed specifically to kids. Yes, chicken nuggets, right,
you know? But yeah, yeah, yeah right in Oh my goodnesses.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
But this brings us to our closer and I think
it's a good one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
I just couldn't think of anything to beat it. I
was like, I'm not going after that.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
And I imagine several of you have heard of it.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
You've perhaps waiting to hear about it.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Now, are they gonna mention it the infamation jar Jar
big so lollipop? Yes, yes, we are all right. So
this was released in conjunction with the nineteen ninety nine
film The Phantom Menace, Episode one, and a special shout
out to super producer Dylan for reminding us about this
(38:17):
one because I forgot about it, but we mentioned we
were doing this episode and was like, oh and this one,
this is the one, And he was right. If you're
not familiar with this lollipop or this pretty universally reviled character,
he's kind of an amphibious humanoid species called a gungan.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Yeah, jar Jar binks, not super producer Dylan, No, yeah,
I would never.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Never, Super producer Dylan. Yes, jar Jar binks, he's got
this long tongue he uses similar to a frog I
think for intended comedic effect.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Yeah, yeah, it's one of the things that is funny
on purpose.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Yes, this character also drew a lot of rightful criticism
for playing into racist tropes but separate podcast. Yeah. Anyway,
The Phantom Menace had so much buzz and excitement around
it because it was the first Star Wars film in
theaters since Return of the Jedi in nineteen eighty three,
and on top of that, it was hyped for using
CGI in ways that it hadn't been used before, and
(39:22):
that included jar Jar Binks, who has billed as the
first fully computer generated character to appear in a live
action movie. In fact, I remember the narrative at the
time was the reason George Lucas started at episode four
instead of episode one was because in his mind he
(39:42):
didn't have the technology to make the story he wanted
on screen.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Yeah, at the time, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
The first three, so in starting with episode one, so
it was exciting. I was like, well, he's got the technology,
now what will happen? And so people were excited about
Jarar Jar and companies did their best to capitalize on
that excitement. This led to some shall we say interesting products,
including the Jarjar lollipop also known as the jar Jar
(40:14):
tongue sucker. And honestly, I'm going to explain a little
bit to you. I think you should look it up
if you want to know more. But I feel like
that just that name gives you enough.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Yeah, because this is not a lollipop shaped like jar
Jar's face.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
No, and the true horror of it is difficult to
capture in words. Going to do my best, but a
fixed atop of handle is the wide open mouth of
jar Jar Binks, who has sith yellow eyes staring at
you from his eyestalks. Oh as you suck on the
(40:55):
protruding bright red tongue sticking out of his cape. Mall,
I just am shocked. I would love to have sat
in the meeting where somebody okayed this.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Ah, this is a product approved.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
For no one I know.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
No audiences should be exposed to this.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
It's an extremely awkward treat, is what I'll say. It's
so inappropriate. Yes, yes, and Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker
labeled this one as the goofiest piece of Star Wars
marketing in history.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
That's the very polite way of putting it.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
That's a very very diplomatic way of putting it. But
as in the way of Star Wars media, it does
have kind of a cult following, like people try to
get it on eBay and stuff. It looks it looks
ridiculous and horrifying.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Yeah yeah, I yeah, it's you shouldn't. You shouldn't. You
shouldn't make a character's tongue a lollipop for children. That's
not that's not, that's inappropriate.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
And I need to reiterate, the eyes are staring at
you while you're sucking on this lollipop. Okay, well, you know,
wild times in the galaxy far far away, very strange listeners.
(42:46):
If any of you, oh oh gosh, have if interacted
with the church lollipop.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
I mean, if you don't want to talk about it,
that's okay too. But if you have a favorite piece
of merch, if you have, if you've interacted with any
of the things that we've mentioned today, if you disagree
with any of our strong opinions.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Yes, oh please let us know. Because it is such
a it's such a huge array of items. So I'm
sure so many of you could write in about something
we've never heard of.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, absolutely but I believe that is
what we have to say about Star Wars licensing and
marketing tie ins for now. We do already have some
listener mail for you, though, and we are going to
(43:48):
get into that as soon as we'd get back from
one more quick break for a word from our sponsors,
and we're.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Back, Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back
with oh listener.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Okay. So a lot of people have written in about
gummy candies.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
Ooh excellent.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Yes, a lot of people have been trying to convert me,
including this first femail. Love it, Yes, I appreciate it.
I appreciate it too. Jared wrote, have you heard of
the brand Albanyese gummy bears? My kids love them because
they taste like real fruit sweeter of course, after all,
it is candy. Each time we pass through Indiana en
(44:44):
route to Chicago from Michigan, we swing by the Albanese factory.
Our personal favorites are true to fruit American favorites and
true to fruit exotic fruits. We like them particularly because
these recipes do not include artificial dies. My son has
an allen to red at number forty, so it's tough
for him to find fruity candies without artificial dies. Not
(45:06):
sure what Albanese's national reach is, but I see them
around Kalamazoo, Michigan, in any of the natural food centers
and healthier food stores. If you're ever in Meryllville, Indiana,
check out the factory store. It's very much like being
at Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. And they have so much
more than just gummy candies. Gummy bears are my absolute
(45:27):
favorite candy, and these ones are excellent. Let me know
if you get a chance to try them, and if
you hate them, don't tell me, as I don't want
to know. I made a bad recommendation. Love the show
and especially love the commentary, it would be a bad recommendation.
I think it's an excellent recommendation.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Well yeah, well, I mean, you know, it might it might.
Annie's tastes might just you know, differ be wrong.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
How dare you? The truth comes out?
Speaker 2 (46:00):
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but but no, I've had these. Yes,
A lovely listener brought a whole bunch into the old
House Stuff Works offices a long time ago, and and
I wound up kind of like hoarding a whole lot
of them. And they were really good. Yeah. I haven't
had any of these true to fruit ones, but I
(46:22):
was reading about them when we did that gummy episode,
and I'm and my my interest is peaked.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Did you have a favorite flavor?
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Oh, I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
Generally speaking, my favorite gummy flavor is like in the
pineapple range.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
But uh, but but.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
They had but they had different I remember that some
of the flavors were like, oh, I've never had a
gummy bear with that flavor before. That's fun.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
Yeah. Thanks, Yeah, this also sounds like a cool Their
factory sounds like a cool place to check out. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Yeah, I was kind of looking at that too, and
it looks it looks awesome.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
Yeah, so thank you for the recommendation. Yes, I will
take it on board.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Yeah yeah, maybe maybe your gummy candy is out there, Yes,
it might be here. You go. Christine wrote, I really
enjoyed the gummy candy episode. We have quite a few
unique ones here in Australia, many of which have been
around since the eighteen hundreds. We call them lollies here,
a catch all term for any bite sized sweet thing.
(47:32):
Lolli derives from lollipop. In parts of the UK, lolly
can refer to anything sweet on a stick, including ice
cream or ice blocks, and this can create a lot
of confusion. Most of our best known gummy lollies were
created by Melbourne confectionery company Allen's, which has been operating
since eighteen ninety one, though these days Allen's is owned
by Nesley those guys, and the quality of their lollies
(47:55):
has been going steadily downhill in more recent years since
the two best known gummy lollies in Australia are snakes
and frogs, both created by Alan's. As well as finger
sized snakes, you can get killer pythons, which are twice
the size, only they used to be four times the
size of regular snakes. They reduced the size in twenty fourteen,
(48:18):
with Alan's claiming a forty seven gram gummy lolly snake
was unhealthy. The price reduced along with the size, though
not by the same proportion. And then there's red frogs.
There used to be green frogs too, but Alan's stopped
making them no great loss, to be honest, but there
are two sizes of red frogs where there only used
(48:38):
to be one, and the microscopic frogs are crowding out
the normal sized ones. They're frogs, dammit, not cane toads.
The frogs also used to be much softer and chewy.
Now they're unpleasantly tough, no doubt. Cost saving has led
to a change in the recipe with no notification, so enraging.
(48:59):
Some lollies have changed their names because the old names
were racist.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
Some people wind about political correctness, but frankly, I think
people should be angrier about the killer pythons shrinking and
the red frogs changing.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
This is fantastic, thank you. Yeah, because in that Gummy
Candy episode, we mentioned that I had run across a
lot of gummy candies from Australia, but it would be
like one sentence sorry, oh no, you didn't, right, and
red frogs was one I remember.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
Oh oh man.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Yes, but I love this. I love this python fiasco
size war. That's that's so good.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
I mean, And yeah, I mean, I guess, I guess
to be fair, of forty seven gram gummy lolly snake
is unhealthy, but I don't think that that's necessarily the
point of gummy snakes to begin with. So I think, right, like,
come on, guys, like, don't you just be like, hey,
we're trying to save money. I wish that we didn't
(50:05):
have to do the song and dance is all I'm saying, right.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
Don't reflect it on to us when you trying to
save money.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
Yeah, yeah, like we know, come on, man, like we're
not going well until some people are going These are
health foods. But anyway that yes, yes, but I love this.
I love so much, delightful. I did not know about
the terminology either, so thank you for that. I'm familiar
with the term lollies, and I'm familiar with the UK usagevit,
(50:38):
which can indeed be confusing, but I didn't know that
it was that extensive. It's fascinating linguistics.
Speaker 1 (50:45):
It does sound confusing indeed, but yes, fascinating. Well. Thank
you so much to both of these listeners for writing in.
If you would like to write to us, you can
or email us hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
We're also social media. You can find us on Instagram
and blue Sky at savor pod, and we do hope
to hear from you. Save is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from heart Radio, you can visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan
and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we
(51:19):
hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor Prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reece.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we have an episode
for you about Star Wars marketing, tie ins and licensed
food products and stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
A very wide category. Indeed, yes, one I'm extremely excited
to talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Oh yeah, I know you are.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yes, well, I absolutely know the answer to this one,
but I will ask it anyway as this tradition. Was
there any particular reason this topic was on your mind?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Lauren, Yeah, yeah, there was so so so it is.
It is the month of May, sometimes known as Star
Wars Month. You know, we've got May the fourth, as
in May the fourth be with you, We've got oh gosh,
what's what's the fifth?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Uh? It's May the fifth, but May the sixth. People
argue which one it should be? Revenge of the fifth,
Revenge of the sixth? Excuse me? Oh okay, okay, But
the entire month is this is the May, like this
is the way from the Mandalorian.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Oh okay, okay, uh huh.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
And also all of the first six movies came out
around May twenty fifth, around Memorial Day. Okay, it's a
big Star Wars month.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, yeah, we are both fans of Star Wars. If
you didn't know, I would. I would hazard to say
that Annie is a little bit deeper into the fandom
than I am. If you've never seen photos of Annie's
cosplay of it's like.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
A Mark Hamill cosplay. Technically it's not.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Even really a Luke Skywalker cosplay.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah, well, well, I guess this is the fun thing
slash headache inducing things, slash makes me want to scream
into a pillow thing, depending on what it is.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Thing about Star Wars cannon is we don't know what
Star Wars cannon is. Who knows what it is. It's
very wild West, and it especially was in the early days.
Oh yeah, which we're going to get into a little bit.
But the cosplay I do, I call it disco Luke Skywalker.
It was a German an appearance Mark Haniell did on
(02:26):
a German television show wherein he's in what looks like
an Abba astronaut cosplay from the seventies, like gold is
all gold, it's all golden may It's it's very eigh catching.
That's a good word for it, thank you. But it
(02:49):
was a Star Wars based segment. However, I would forgive
you for watching what you can still find of it
online not understanding that at all the connection there.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, well okay, it's a great costume, is what I'm saying. Yeah,
oh no yet, thank you. Yeah. Yeah, so if y'all
have not witnessed that, you should.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
But but yeah, so we're we're excited to talk about this.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
It's just a goofy, goofy little little episode that we
were like, yeah, let's celebrate, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
And there is a lot, as we said, because we're
a food show, we were a little limited, even though
there's plenty of plenty of times and products, but a
lot more kind of boring.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, it's just it's like, oh there's more pez dispensers. Cool, right,
you know.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Right, But I do love and I know Laura knows this.
One of my favorite things to think about is what
Darth Vader would think about his image and being used
for all of these products.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, right, because you know that suit is you know,
that's he's not having a good time in there, right,
Like generally speaking, that's a symbol of his of his
mutilation and journey to the dark side.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Uh. And I also think he ideally, I would want
to be intimidating instead of on waffles, waffle iron, or
on toilet paper. I have a friend who this is
like every day I get a message from her text
that's just a picture she's found of some bizarre Star
(04:35):
Wars item, and it's usually dark Vader really yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Because yeah, because Anakin is so yeah, he's he's real
titchy about these kind of things, you.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Know, Yeah, there is something kind of fun about that.
But yeah, I think we found some very stellar examples.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
For this pun absolutely intended. H If you want to,
you can see our prior episodes about Star Wars related
foods and merchandise. I think we've talked about them a
few different times in Listener Mail episodes, but definitely we
cover things in the Popcorn Bucket episode and also our
(05:19):
fictional foods episode about Star Wars, which is from twenty nineteen.
So there have been plenty of things to talk about
since then.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
But and this is the first year there will be
a Star Wars movie theater since then. Oh man, yeah,
so it is it. It's a big Star Wars time.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, yeah, gosh.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, We've definitely touched on several and several instances. But
I suppose that brings us to our question, sure, Star
Wars merchandise, what is it? Well, Star Wars.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Star Wars is, of course a galactic sized media franchise
with films and TV shows and books and comics and
games and theme park attractions of plenty, such that it's
really only been out of like the like pop culture
public's eye briefly since the first film first debuted in
(06:24):
nineteen seventy seven, and since the beginning it has been
heavily merchandised and licensed. And I find this to be
a really fascinating case study really because like franchise creator
George Lucas famously took a pay cut for directing that
first film in exchange for securing the rights to the
(06:44):
merch and licensing from the studio from Fox. So you've
got this creator who is probably more financially motivated than
any other pop culture creator in history. To Milk to
Blue Milk the heck out of their own creations in
terms of like goods and tie ins and collectibles and
(07:06):
all of that. It is all managed through the staff
at Lucasfilm, his production company, like like George himself, is
an out there brokering deals with like Kellogg's or whatever.
But yeah, so, yeah, so we've seen waves of this
kind of stuff over the years, generally timed with major
media releases in the franchise, and we see that kind
(07:29):
of thing with all kinds of properties these days. But
like to be clear, Star Wars blazed that trail, like
we see it all the time now in no small
part because of these success Star Wars had with it.
Like did you know that Star Wars was the first
media franchise that Lego licensed ever, that was in nineteen
(07:52):
ninety nine to coordinate with the prequel trilogy coming out.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
A big marketing push with that one.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
There was, yep, gotta cover it a little bit here
and there. Yeah, when the sequel trilogy started coming out
in twenty fifteen, Stephen Colbert ran a segment on The
Late Show called may the forced marketing integration be with You?
(08:21):
Which I appreciate because yeah, they really would and still
will slap a Star War on anything, honestly, though, Like
shout out to whoever decided to co brand grapes and
oranges for Force Awakens, Like just like a package of
green seedless grapes with Yoda on the label, or like
(08:45):
a bag of oranges with BB eight on it? Sure, genius?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah? Why not? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
One of these things is very green and one of
these things is very round, and here we are.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
What am I to make of it? Though? What am
I eating? When I eat a Yoda labeled grape?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I'm I don't want to think that hard about that one.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Thanks Stephen. Colbert actually recently did another segment about grogu
baby Yoda Vanilla wafers is doing it and they're like
little blue vanilla wafers, And he asked the question, are
(09:30):
these his eggs? Are they his? What of the right? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Is this Dan Driff? What's going on?
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Sure? I think it's because he ate those macaroon looking
cookies looking cookies in the Mandalorian. But who knows?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Who knows, couldn't couldn't tell you, No.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
We may never know. Well, what about the nutrition? Don't
don't eat licensing deals? Also?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Possibly don't eat these products in some cases. I can't
tell you what to do though.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That's true. Good point, Lauren. Okay, Well, we do have
some numbers for you. We do, all right.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
As of twenty twelve, the Star Wars franchise had made
around eight point two billion dollars in ticket sales and
home entertainment media sales. Okay, at that time they had
made over twenty billion dollars in licensed goods. Woh huh,
(10:41):
more than twice as much.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
And I couldn't I couldn't find a good source for
current numbers. They were a little.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Bit all over the place.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
But suffice it to say that that licensing is still
worth a lot more than the actual media.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yes, may or may not have gotten into some fights
with people about this. I think they're right. But you know,
if you didn't like the Ewoks, there's pretty obvious reason
the Ewoks were in Return of the Jedi.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Oh yeah, No, they made adorable children's toys.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yep, yep, that's it. Yeah. But also they were vicious
and I'm pretty sure ate human flesh.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
So yeah, I love an Ewok.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Oh I too too. That's why the argument happens. I
agree with the Yes, it was to sell toys, but
but also.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
I mean the factor in the eating of human flesh.
And I'm like, yeah, they're pretty cool guys, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, definitely, we are totally normal people just appreciating a
species on another planet.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, and look, they mostly ate storm troopers from what
I can tell. So you know, I don't know if
Leo Organo is in particular danger from them, but.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Well Luke and Han and Chewie might have been. But yeah,
that was fine because she had the granola barbs. Very
nice to offer it to Wicket. To the Ewok, I
love this. Sometimes I feel like I'm speaking a different language.
And for listeners who are familiar with this, what are
you saying? Annie, It's okay. Yeah, just just know there
(12:38):
are reasons, I think to the Ewok's decisions.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yes, there you go, Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
But I suppose this brings us to some of the
examples we want to get into.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yes, yeah, but first it brings us to a quick
break for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. So
as we are coming fresh off of Star Wars day,
may the fourth be with you. I do want to
say a lot of companies, including food and beverage companies,
simply put out a social media post or give a
product a temporary pun name, or offer something in a
(13:34):
Star Wars shape, but plenty go above and beyond. Oh yeah,
oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
And it's not that some of those can't be fun
like like like in nineteen eighty three, timed around a
Return of the Jedi coming out, Kellogg's offered C.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Three pos as a cereal.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yes, because they're because they're OK, because they're O shaped
and it's three three P you get it, you get
it or like And I don't know if this one
was meant to be as clever as it was, but
like for the Solo movie dropping in twenty eighteen, Solo
Cups put their Solo Cups in Solo branded packaging. I
(14:14):
don't know, I just love it.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
That's a popular cosplay at Dragon Con as well. Ah,
it's a Han Solo with a Solo cup around the
Solo cup adorable. It's very good.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Adorable and yeah. Like So, just to get an idea
of the current landscape, as I was preparing the notes
for this, I just clicked around the internet a little bit.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
And so.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Here's a little cross section of Star Wars licensed and
branded food related products currently available in stores. Okay, you've
got Jeoffrey's coffee brand, Precious Cargo blend, Yeah with a
Mandalorian Yeah, Precious Cargo, different company, entirely Bones Coffees, Wookie
(15:09):
Cookie flavored Blend. It's flavored like chocolate chip cookies, Archer Brand,
Mandalorian and Grogu meat jerky snacks. Okay, I don't know, man.
There's a popcorn maker shaped like the Death Star, a
waffle maker shaped like the Millennium Falcon, light up lightsaber chopsticks,
(15:31):
light sabers, salt and pepper mills, pork shaped salt and
pepper shakers, Grogu gummy frogs, and a heart shaped box
of chocolates. And on the cover there's an illustration of
two storm troopers and Darth Vader reaching out to force
choke you.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
And it's a reusable tin. So that's collectible.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
I have that. I'm embarrassed of how many of these
I have.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Amazing love it, but yeah, just to say it's everywhere,
I mean, you know, like you can buy like a
Williams Sonoma Star Wars Breakfast gift crate that includes themed
pancake molds and its spatula shaped like Vader's helmet. Yeah,
it's just it's it's out there if you wish to
find it.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
This is making me wish I had gone through my
kitchen and just it wouldn't been too long A list.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Send me pictures. I'll see if I can share some.
I also do want to say that since the theme parks,
since Disney started really leaning into Star Wars at theme parks,
it's gotten intense over there as well. Like there's for
May this year a bunch of new food and drink.
Many items dropped. My favorites from Orlando's parks based on
(16:53):
the photos I have not gone recently. Based on the
photos are some like cinnamon sugar lotus root chips I get.
I guess they have like a Star Wars themed name,
but like they just look alien. I don't know. Give
them something to buy.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Here we go.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
They have some chios that are dyed either red or blue,
like red or blue sugar on the churros that come
in a little cardboard holder printed like a lightsaber handle.
And then they've got rechargeable light up lightsaber shaped swizzle
sticks that come in in either green in a Chosen
(17:32):
One cooler which is like a green Apple statement crean
lime drink, or in red in a sth Lord libation,
which is a blood orange craan lime drink.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
I don't know why that sounded so nefarious to me,
but it did.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, you can also throw back to our popcorn bucket episode.
You can now purchase a popcorn bucket shaped to like
three pos salvaged head. Wow or I guess it's just
a protocol droid's salvaged head. Yes, more silver than gold
(18:16):
toned in color.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
But I see I have the R two D two
pop popcorn bucket.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yeah, it's cute.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Oh yeah, AR two is adorable, the.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Best, the best. I mean, I feel like I'm just
going to be throwing out these examples throughout this episode.
I do. I will say, in my defense, not that
there's anything wrong with purchasing collecting. Yeah. Sure, most of
this has been gifted to me. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah, once people figure out that you kind of have
a thing, if it's something as predominant as Star Wars.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Oh yeah yeah. So I have the R two D
two popcorn It I believe is not available anymore. I
wouldn't say it's vintage. I don't know where's from, but
I think it was an eBay purchase.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Okay, okay, yes, but it is well it is cute, Okay,
but anyway, Okay, let's let's go over that's just a
smattering of what's going on right now, Let's go over
a few of like the greatest hits.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yes, and let us start with Burger King because Burger
King has a long history of partnering with Star Wars
to offer a variety of products. In nineteen seventy seven,
the same year the first film came out, Burger King
was allegedly the first fast food company to run a
movie promotion. They offered four drinking glasses in a cross
(19:46):
promotion with Coca Cola, which, thanks to a friend of mine,
I own they are pretty cool. Darth Vader explained the
whole promotion in an ad, which is so thing. I
also adore how many times he showed up an ad.
They ran the same promotion when Impire Strikes Back and
(20:08):
Return of the Jedi came out, so nineteen eighty nineteen
eighty three.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Interestingly to me, they were not the only fast food
chain to do a tie in in nineteen seventy seven
with Coca Cola. So tie in tie for first Yeah,
because rival brand Burger Chef was giving away a free
poster with the purchase of a large coke and there
(20:34):
were four different designs. They also ran a TV ad
for the promotion where like three PO and R two
go up to a Burger Chef counter and ask for
a poster, and like, the nice lady explains the promotion
to them, and then Vader shows up, so they leave
before they actually get it. But I don't know if
droids can drink soda, so I think it's fine.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Let's not think too hard about the logic.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
No no, no, no no. And this campaign was apparently successful
because later in that year, Burger Chef offered what I
think is the first fast food kids meal with Star
Wars tie in. The meals came in these boxes that
had seven different boxes that had these like printed paperboard
craft kits for making different droids and ships. If you're like,
(21:23):
what the heck was Burger Chef. By the way, it
was this big chain in the sixties and seventies, but
their corporate overlord, General Foods sold them to Hearties in
the eighties, which then converted or closed the brand's restaurants.
So yeah, but they were a big deal at the time.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
I was wondering thank you film. In one of the
more bizarre marketing campaigns Burger King embarked upon, a German
branch offered free whoppers leading up to the release of
the twenty nineteen film The Rise of Skywalker if they
downloaded the Burger King app read aloud Star Wars spoilers
(22:00):
obtained via online sources. The man behind this campaign said
he quote wanted to challenge people's Whopper love and put
it to the ultimate test by asking them to choose
between their love of our flagship product and their love
for the most epic sci fi movie ever. To avoid lawsuits,
(22:22):
they avoided using specific Star Wars terms, so, for example,
Chewbacca was called the Hairy Roaring Creature. A lot of
their predictions, sourced from the internet did pan out, though,
like quote the Young Sword Lady is the grandchild of
the Old Hoodie Villain and the quote Hairy Roaring Creature
(22:45):
is accidentally killed by the Young Sword Lady but actually
survives Wow's house.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Yes, huh.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Hopefully if you haven't seen it, you don't really know
what that means in the.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Spoilers, and it doesn't Yeah, it doesn't matter, you.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Know, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
I shall forever just call him the old hoodie Villain. Now,
that's uh, yeah, that's pretty excellent. That's pretty excellent.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
This year, for the May sixth release of the film,
the Mandalorian named Grogu Burger King debuted Mandalorian based food items,
but also like the King hat. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Yeah, so so Burger King does this little king crown
that you can I mean, it's mostly for children, but
I'm pretty sure they'll give one to you if you ask.
But yeah, and they're usually printed you know, like a
like a crown, you know, like like gold with little
gems in it. Right, but yeah, for for this, uh,
one has like Grogu's face on it, and one is
(23:49):
like a Mandalor is like the Mandalorian's helmet, but just
you know, cut out of a a in a crown shape.
It's really weird and I feel like, earnestly it's kind
of disrespectful Mandalorian culture.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yes, especially because the whole mandol Or plot line with him.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah. Look, anyway, I'm so.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
I apologize to any poor Burger King employee that's had
to hear this complaint. I hope, I hope, I hope.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
No one is giving anyone at that level slack about this.
That's inappropriate. Absolutely, I hope.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Be nice to your servers.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Yes, they can't control this was not their decision, no
way above their heads. No, they might agree with you
in fact anyway. So here's a quote from brand innovators
dot com. The lineup includes a BBQ Bounty Whopper sandwich
in a helmet shaped cartan, Grogu's Blue Cookie Shake, a
vanilla soft syrup blended with blue sugar cookie syrup, Grogu's
(24:53):
Garlic Chicken Fries, Imperial Cheddar Ranch tots. The QSR has
also created four co cups and a Mandalorian themed junior
meal with movie inspired toys.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
QSR I meaning quick service restaurant, if you're if you're
not familiar with that lingo, I like that. I explained that,
And I'm not going to go into detail about wicket, but.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Yeah, I read a little bit more about all of this.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
The sandwich, the the aforementioned barbecue Bounty Whopper is a
burger topped with Swiss cheese, crispy pickle chips, bacon, lettuce,
and tomato, and is and I quote from Burger King
smothered in creamy bounty barbecue sauce.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Okay, okay, I.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Don't know what that means.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
No me either.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
It looked to be it looked to be like a
kind of like like if you mixed some like weeet
dark style barbecue sauce with like some MAO that looked
like the concept.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Okay, I do wonder about the ideation behind these meetings.
If I had to come up with what I thought
would be a BBQ bounty sauce, I don't know. Maybe
this is a fun thought experiment I should embark upon.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah maybe not.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Maybe I'd take that will consume all my time in
a way that's not helpful at all. But I think
the meetings must be interesting. I was reading people talking
about trying these items, and I'm pretty sure the overall
opinion was pretty positive. It was like, either it's fine
(26:49):
or pretty good.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Oh that's great, that's better than average for a lot
of these tie ins exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
But listeners write it and let us know if you
tried it. Oh yeah, any of that. So moving on
from Burger King, although I'm sure they were involved in this,
well obviously the collectible part. But we're gonna briefly touch
on collectibles and contests that were food related with Star
Wars because a lot of companies have offered some kind
(27:20):
of Star Wars collectible or a chance at a Star
Wars prize, and I want to reiterate that this was
a huge thing that the Star Wars franchise was a
pretty early trail blazer in I remember me personally. I
won an episode one backpack that was cool as heck
(27:41):
from a pack of Doritos when the that movie came out,
and I hate so many Doritos. I'm sure it was
not cost effective at all, But I wanted a prize.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
But you wanted that backpack, yeah, Or you wanted something, yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Did, But the backpack was a pretty good prize, and
I'm so angry I donated it, like because the prequels
weren't cool, so I gave it away. But it was
a cool backpack and I wish I had it to
this day anyway. One of the earliest examples of this
kind of promotion was also from nineteen seventy seven, when
(28:13):
bags of premium Wonderbread contained sixteen Star Wars trading cards.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah it's again. It comes in waves with pretty much
every movie coming out, Like I think my one merch
story for this episode is that I have a plastic
spoon where like the handle is shaped like a lightsaber
handle and the spoon bit is clear and at one
point it lit up, but definitely it got washed improperly
and does not do that anymore. A friend sent it
(28:41):
to me in the early two thousands after receiving it
in a Kellogg's cereal box. I'm pretty sure. So one
one collectible that I wanted to mention that's food related.
So in twenty fifteen, again, when the sequel trilogy started
(29:04):
coming out, Falcon Toys released this vinyl figurine. That is,
the figurine is a frosted pop tart that is also
Han solo frozen carbonite like like Han is like grincing
out at you from the vinyl frosting. Really uh huh
(29:29):
and coming full circle for pop tarts. This is from
a line of collectibles from Falcon called pop Art. So
here we are, Here we are. You can see our
pop Tarts episode for more about that. Yes, certa uh
and okay, one more, one more. There is, or perhaps
has been, a toaster that will toast the word Star Wars,
(29:52):
like in the Star Wars font on your bread. Okay,
but that makes it sound normal. The toaster in question
was housed inside a replica of Vader's helmet, so like
you take off the top of the helmet, like like
the helmet is just sitting on your counter in your kitchen,
and you can take the top off and stick bread
in where his skull would be.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
The fires of mooset Afar still burning inside.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Oh no, wow, thos.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Of all the things that Anakin would disapprove of, I
feel like that'd be high up there. He's like, that's
just rude, y'all, that is impolite.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yeah, yeah, that's I can see. He's got a point.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Not wrong about that.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
No one final one from me, because I still have these. Okay.
Taco Bell really leaned into episode one and they have
collectible cups, and it was more of the lid at
the top was collectible, but you'd get these. They were
(31:08):
pretty decent sized, like not a small little top, but.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You're making a gesture like it's maybe like six inches
or something like that.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yeah, okay, yeah, and they would you screw it on
to the top of your cup and it would be
like Subulba, which is minor character but uh jar jar,
who were about to talk about, But yeah, you would go.
I would go to Taco Bell and try to get
there's four of them, try to get these leads and
(31:41):
I still have them. Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness, okay, well,
well this brings us to one of my favorite things. Yeah,
I love this. In two thousand and three, a Chilean
television channel air the original Star Wars without any ad breaks.
(32:04):
Sounds great. However, that did not mean there were no ads. Nope, No,
they just got really creative instead incorporating the beer Servesic
cristal into the film. It's really jarring and hilarious.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
So, for instance, the scene where obi Wan is going
to give Luke his father's lightsaber and a new hope.
He's preaching into the chest that houses the lightsaber, and
instead he finds a bottle of Servasa crystal, and the jingle,
which is loud and jarring and quite funny in this context,
(32:43):
just plays out and then the film continues.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
The film continues off as though nothing has happened, that's
out of the ordinary.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Yes, I just kind of love that. It's like your
dad would want me to share this with you. And
it's beer. It's beer, it's beer. In another scene from
Return of the Jedi, the Emperor reaches for a bottle
of Servasic cristyle. Just as the jingle cuts in. Luke
reaches for one, and Empire strikes back during his training
(33:15):
with Yoda, which fair I feel like you would have
was putting through the loop. Yeah he deserves that one.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yes, there are no lines or actors in these snippets
that are like skits. Yeah, yeah, just a hand reaching
for a beer. And the music and the ad campaigns
had names like the Force Is with Gristal Beer. If
you have never seen these, they are glorious. I do
(33:46):
feel bad for people where this was their first experiencing them.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Like the Star Wars movies the first experience. Yeah, yeah,
because like like really takes you right out of like
drum bad moments of the films.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Very dramatic moments. But I did. I loved them so
much that I had a Surveisa Crystal Beer, like I
got what. I got the label for a beer bottle
for my Star Wars cosplay last year so I could
carry it around. The memes are fantastic too, so good.
A lot of people pointed out how hilarious this would
(34:24):
be if this was the only version that you had
ever seen and no one knew what you were talking about,
Like if you were like, that's kind of weird that one.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Scene, yeah, with the beer and everyone else is going
what art?
Speaker 1 (34:37):
I don't recall the canteena scene. The ad agency behind
this whole thing, OMD Santiago, was the recipient of a
two thousand and four award at the Cannes International Advertising Festival.
George Lucas reportedly was not a fan of this Wie
No and lucasfilm pursued legal act. The campaign did not
(35:02):
air again, but it was too late. People knew about it. Yeah,
I was out there forever. Yes, yes, so they didn't
play it again. I don't think they got in trouble
beyond that, but they did get this award.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Oh my goodness. Well, okay, all right, that is indubitably strange.
I will say some of the licensing items are licensed
items that have gotten attention over the years, probably like
just sound weird outside of their intended market. Though, like
back in twenty fifteen, again the sequel trilogy was coming out.
(35:43):
One Attila Naggie, Naggie, I didn't look up how to
pronounce their name. A Hungarian correspondent for Gizmoto dropped this
photo essay of a smattering of tie in products that
like they just went and found in supermarkets around town.
And these included like fairly straightforward products that you could
probably find here, like you know, frozen chicken nuggets, like
(36:04):
flavored waters, stuff like that, plus more surprising items like
Star Wars branded super sweet canned corn or uh, Star
Wars toy gra cream like in like a plastic sheath
tube like a breakfast sausage, or Star Wars chicken frankfurters
(36:27):
with a core of ketchup filling like a like a
little red light saber in in your hot dog.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Oh no, kaiber crystal waiting to be corrupted. I that's fascinating.
I would love if other listeners from other countries would
write in.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Oh yeah, yeah, because right, and you know, like like
like we just like in the United States, we just
don't have toy gras cream in tubes that you can buy,
Like that's not really a thing that you can purchase here,
So it sounds really weird. And also like I'm positive
that someone has put a Star War on canned vegetables
here in the US, but like it's just a little
(37:11):
it's like, no, that's not the first thing you would
think of.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah, I also think of like Coca Cola.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Right, like cookies and candy and sodas, like stuff like that. Yeah, yeah,
like stuff marketed specifically to kids. Yes, chicken nuggets, right,
you know? But yeah, yeah, yeah right in Oh my goodnesses.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
But this brings us to our closer and I think
it's a good one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
I just couldn't think of anything to beat it. I
was like, I'm not going after that.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
And I imagine several of you have heard of it.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
You've perhaps waiting to hear about it.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Now, are they gonna mention it the infamation jar Jar
big so lollipop? Yes, yes, we are all right. So
this was released in conjunction with the nineteen ninety nine
film The Phantom Menace, Episode one, and a special shout
out to super producer Dylan for reminding us about this
(38:17):
one because I forgot about it, but we mentioned we
were doing this episode and was like, oh and this one,
this is the one, And he was right. If you're
not familiar with this lollipop or this pretty universally reviled character,
he's kind of an amphibious humanoid species called a gungan.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Yeah, jar Jar binks, not super producer Dylan, No, yeah,
I would never.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Never, Super producer Dylan. Yes, jar Jar binks, he's got
this long tongue he uses similar to a frog I
think for intended comedic effect.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Yeah, yeah, it's one of the things that is funny
on purpose.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Yes, this character also drew a lot of rightful criticism
for playing into racist tropes but separate podcast. Yeah. Anyway,
The Phantom Menace had so much buzz and excitement around
it because it was the first Star Wars film in
theaters since Return of the Jedi in nineteen eighty three,
and on top of that, it was hyped for using
CGI in ways that it hadn't been used before, and
(39:22):
that included jar Jar Binks, who has billed as the
first fully computer generated character to appear in a live
action movie. In fact, I remember the narrative at the
time was the reason George Lucas started at episode four
instead of episode one was because in his mind he
(39:42):
didn't have the technology to make the story he wanted
on screen.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Yeah, at the time, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
The first three, so in starting with episode one, so
it was exciting. I was like, well, he's got the technology,
now what will happen? And so people were excited about
Jarar Jar and companies did their best to capitalize on
that excitement. This led to some shall we say interesting products,
including the Jarjar lollipop also known as the jar Jar
(40:14):
tongue sucker. And honestly, I'm going to explain a little
bit to you. I think you should look it up
if you want to know more. But I feel like
that just that name gives you enough.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Yeah, because this is not a lollipop shaped like jar
Jar's face.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
No, and the true horror of it is difficult to
capture in words. Going to do my best, but a
fixed atop of handle is the wide open mouth of
jar Jar Binks, who has sith yellow eyes staring at
you from his eyestalks. Oh as you suck on the
(40:55):
protruding bright red tongue sticking out of his cape. Mall,
I just am shocked. I would love to have sat
in the meeting where somebody okayed this.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Ah, this is a product approved.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
For no one I know.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
No audiences should be exposed to this.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
It's an extremely awkward treat, is what I'll say. It's
so inappropriate. Yes, yes, and Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker
labeled this one as the goofiest piece of Star Wars
marketing in history.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
That's the very polite way of putting it.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
That's a very very diplomatic way of putting it. But
as in the way of Star Wars media, it does
have kind of a cult following, like people try to
get it on eBay and stuff. It looks it looks
ridiculous and horrifying.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Yeah yeah, I yeah, it's you shouldn't. You shouldn't. You
shouldn't make a character's tongue a lollipop for children. That's
not that's not, that's inappropriate.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
And I need to reiterate, the eyes are staring at
you while you're sucking on this lollipop. Okay, well, you know,
wild times in the galaxy far far away, very strange listeners.
(42:46):
If any of you, oh oh gosh, have if interacted
with the church lollipop.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
I mean, if you don't want to talk about it,
that's okay too. But if you have a favorite piece
of merch, if you have, if you've interacted with any
of the things that we've mentioned today, if you disagree
with any of our strong opinions.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Yes, oh please let us know. Because it is such
a it's such a huge array of items. So I'm
sure so many of you could write in about something
we've never heard of.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, absolutely but I believe that is
what we have to say about Star Wars licensing and
marketing tie ins for now. We do already have some
listener mail for you, though, and we are going to
(43:48):
get into that as soon as we'd get back from
one more quick break for a word from our sponsors,
and we're.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
Back, Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back
with oh listener.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Okay. So a lot of people have written in about
gummy candies.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
Ooh excellent.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Yes, a lot of people have been trying to convert me,
including this first femail. Love it, Yes, I appreciate it.
I appreciate it too. Jared wrote, have you heard of
the brand Albanyese gummy bears? My kids love them because
they taste like real fruit sweeter of course, after all,
it is candy. Each time we pass through Indiana en
(44:44):
route to Chicago from Michigan, we swing by the Albanese factory.
Our personal favorites are true to fruit American favorites and
true to fruit exotic fruits. We like them particularly because
these recipes do not include artificial dies. My son has
an allen to red at number forty, so it's tough
for him to find fruity candies without artificial dies. Not
(45:06):
sure what Albanese's national reach is, but I see them
around Kalamazoo, Michigan, in any of the natural food centers
and healthier food stores. If you're ever in Meryllville, Indiana,
check out the factory store. It's very much like being
at Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. And they have so much
more than just gummy candies. Gummy bears are my absolute
(45:27):
favorite candy, and these ones are excellent. Let me know
if you get a chance to try them, and if
you hate them, don't tell me, as I don't want
to know. I made a bad recommendation. Love the show
and especially love the commentary, it would be a bad recommendation.
I think it's an excellent recommendation.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Well yeah, well, I mean, you know, it might it might.
Annie's tastes might just you know, differ be wrong.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
How dare you? The truth comes out?
Speaker 2 (46:00):
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but but no, I've had these. Yes,
A lovely listener brought a whole bunch into the old
House Stuff Works offices a long time ago, and and
I wound up kind of like hoarding a whole lot
of them. And they were really good. Yeah. I haven't
had any of these true to fruit ones, but I
(46:22):
was reading about them when we did that gummy episode,
and I'm and my my interest is peaked.
Speaker 1 (46:30):
Did you have a favorite flavor?
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Oh, I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
Generally speaking, my favorite gummy flavor is like in the
pineapple range.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
But uh, but but.
Speaker 2 (46:44):
They had but they had different I remember that some
of the flavors were like, oh, I've never had a
gummy bear with that flavor before. That's fun.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
Yeah. Thanks, Yeah, this also sounds like a cool Their
factory sounds like a cool place to check out. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Yeah, I was kind of looking at that too, and
it looks it looks awesome.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
Yeah, so thank you for the recommendation. Yes, I will
take it on board.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Yeah yeah, maybe maybe your gummy candy is out there, Yes,
it might be here. You go. Christine wrote, I really
enjoyed the gummy candy episode. We have quite a few
unique ones here in Australia, many of which have been
around since the eighteen hundreds. We call them lollies here,
a catch all term for any bite sized sweet thing.
(47:32):
Lolli derives from lollipop. In parts of the UK, lolly
can refer to anything sweet on a stick, including ice
cream or ice blocks, and this can create a lot
of confusion. Most of our best known gummy lollies were
created by Melbourne confectionery company Allen's, which has been operating
since eighteen ninety one, though these days Allen's is owned
by Nesley those guys, and the quality of their lollies
(47:55):
has been going steadily downhill in more recent years since
the two best known gummy lollies in Australia are snakes
and frogs, both created by Alan's. As well as finger
sized snakes, you can get killer pythons, which are twice
the size, only they used to be four times the
size of regular snakes. They reduced the size in twenty fourteen,
(48:18):
with Alan's claiming a forty seven gram gummy lolly snake
was unhealthy. The price reduced along with the size, though
not by the same proportion. And then there's red frogs.
There used to be green frogs too, but Alan's stopped
making them no great loss, to be honest, but there
are two sizes of red frogs where there only used
(48:38):
to be one, and the microscopic frogs are crowding out
the normal sized ones. They're frogs, dammit, not cane toads.
The frogs also used to be much softer and chewy.
Now they're unpleasantly tough, no doubt. Cost saving has led
to a change in the recipe with no notification, so enraging.
(48:59):
Some lollies have changed their names because the old names
were racist.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
Some people wind about political correctness, but frankly, I think
people should be angrier about the killer pythons shrinking and
the red frogs changing.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
This is fantastic, thank you. Yeah, because in that Gummy
Candy episode, we mentioned that I had run across a
lot of gummy candies from Australia, but it would be
like one sentence sorry, oh no, you didn't, right, and
red frogs was one I remember.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
Oh oh man.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Yes, but I love this. I love this python fiasco
size war. That's that's so good.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
I mean, And yeah, I mean, I guess, I guess
to be fair, of forty seven gram gummy lolly snake
is unhealthy, but I don't think that that's necessarily the
point of gummy snakes to begin with. So I think, right, like,
come on, guys, like, don't you just be like, hey,
we're trying to save money. I wish that we didn't
(50:05):
have to do the song and dance is all I'm saying, right.
Speaker 1 (50:08):
Don't reflect it on to us when you trying to
save money.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
Yeah, yeah, like we know, come on, man, like we're
not going well until some people are going These are
health foods. But anyway that yes, yes, but I love this.
I love so much, delightful. I did not know about
the terminology either, so thank you for that. I'm familiar
with the term lollies, and I'm familiar with the UK usagevit,
(50:38):
which can indeed be confusing, but I didn't know that
it was that extensive. It's fascinating linguistics.
Speaker 1 (50:45):
It does sound confusing indeed, but yes, fascinating. Well. Thank
you so much to both of these listeners for writing in.
If you would like to write to us, you can
or email us hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
We're also social media. You can find us on Instagram
and blue Sky at savor pod, and we do hope
to hear from you. Save is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from heart Radio, you can visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan
and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we
(51:19):
hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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