A busted digital camera prevents me from bringing to you the disturbing image of the Andy Capp's Salsa Fries which are a new offering in my workplace vending machine (although the "review" I just linked to reveals that the good folks at ConAgra came up with this particular food-substitute some time ago. (I did find a product shot of this related Capp-themed treat.)
Aside from the fact that, as usual, I'm the last kid on the bus about this, is it wrong to find the unlikely marriage of America's favorite drunken cockney anachronism and the rise of multiculti snack food to be a brain-melter? Is this the kind of thing that others take for granted? I mean, "Andy Capp's Hot Curry Fries" I would find a reasonable concept, very Keith Talent.
If you're not in the mood for Mr. Capp's special south-of-the-border style munchies, our vending machine also offers this. Sadly, the Charms website doesn't allow you to clearly see the bag, on which an anthropomorphic ball of "fluffy stuff" smiles at you invitingly.
Posted by BT at August 21, 2002 05:58 PMI can confirm that Andy Capp's Hot Fries have been around for at least 20 years, as I remember eating them at the pool during the summer as a young whippersnapper.
When Andy Capp still appeared in the Washington Post, I read it nearly every day. Granted, I read nearly every comic nearly every day (except Cathy and Zippy the Pinhead, which have too many words), but with Capp, I had actually stopped for a while, then started again just to see if it was as unchanged as I suspected. It was, and somehow its constancy kept me reading until the day the Post retired it.
Posted by: scott on August 22, 2002 09:05 AMSomehow I missed those; I had a very classically Frito-Lay childhood. The introduction of Cool Ranch Doritos into the Snackuverse was, for me, a revelation.
But still, Andy Capp and Salsa? My colleague Christina suggested that this means we can be on the lookout for Beetle Bailey's Pita 'n' Hummus Crackers, or perhaps Huckleberry Hound Extreme Wasabi Peas.
Posted by: BT on August 22, 2002 09:46 AMThose are nice suggestions, and I see the point, but the salsa bit doesn't do a whole lot to further the conundrum of why you'd put Andy Capp on the front of any product at all in the States. Or anywhere. Actually, probably more folks know the sozzled and misogynistic Mr. Capp from his Flavored Fry Product advocacy than from his cartoon exploits. So I guess he's still a FFP pitchman not due to his comic exploits, but just to maintain FFP line continuity. Making him more like King Don or Twinkie the Kid and less like the beer-drinking, ass-pinching, rugby and soccer dirty-playing, couch-sleeping Garfield he used to be.
Still, I think they'd get more of a bounce by changing to a more modern fry pitchman. Baldo, maybe. Or even Mary Worth.
"Same Great Taste, New Cartoon Pitchman."
But maybe Capp's creator is willing to take payment in Salsa FFPs alone, whereas Jack Elrod would require actual cash to allow Mark Trail to endorse a new line of beef-jerky flavored fries.
Posted by: scott on August 22, 2002 11:32 AMReg Smythe gets, one presumes, all the spicy fries the afterworld has to offer -- he passed on to the great pub in the sky in 1998.
There's something about Capp's sausage-shaped feet that I always found fascinating...
Posted by: BT on August 22, 2002 11:48 AM