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Thanks To The Los Angeles Times for covering our client Red Walnuts

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:29:24 +0100

David Karp remains the King with good reason. Great coverage of Sanguinetti Farms, growers of Red Walnuts in Linden, CA. Get some while they last!

Thanks To The New York Times for covering our client Red Walnuts

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:27:27 +0100

Thanks for "Seeing Red Inside the Shell" on November 6, 2012. Red Walnuts are available now!

Thanks Gourmet for covering our client Red Walnuts

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 21:58:55 +0100

Great work Jane in securing this coverage for Red Walnuts and Baldor Foods.

Gourmet Live Blog

Just In Time For Holiday Bakers: Red Walnuts!

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Kemp Minifie

Photo: Kemp Minifie

If ever there was a perfect nut for the December holidays, it’s the red walnut. The skin covering the creamy white nutmeat is almost uncanny in its deep, beaujolais-red color. You might be tempted to think someone got frisky with a bottle of red dye, or suspect that there’s some wacky genetic modification going on, but in fact, it’s the result of grafting Persian red walnut trees onto the more common English walnut trees, because English walnuts are larger, creamier nuts.

Interestingly, what we call the English walnut is actually native to Persia. The English became linked with the walnut, not because they grew them commercially—they didn’t—but because English sea merchants traded them all around the world. These days, California produces about three-quarters of the world’s walnuts.

You’d never know a red walnut by its shell. It’s the same shade of beige as an English walnut. It isn’t until you carefully crack one open that the scarlet hue reveals itself. If the color doesn’t hook you, the flavor will. Red walnuts have a richer, nuttier essence, without the bitter tannins you often find in English walnuts. Once you try some red walnuts, you’ll find it hard to keep your hands out of a bag of them.

I can’t wait to make our Perigord Walnut Tart with them, or our Whole Wheat Bread with Walnuts and Cranberries. Holiday baking just got a lot more fun with these red walnuts! Supplies are limited, so be prepared to pay more for red walnuts. A good source is nuts.com.

News that impacts dietary supplement marketing

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:38:33 +0100

Thanks Mediapost for this post By Chris Iafolla Tuesday, September 13, 2011

In The Year 2018: Planning Your Marketing For The Next Seven Years (Sort Of)

On Aug, 15, Facebook rolled out a significant change to its platform that many thought would be the death knell of pharmaceutical Facebook pages. Until that point, Facebook allowed pharmaceutical companies to disable commenting on their pages through a "whitelisting" process. In a reverse of course, Facebook now only allows that functionality for pages that are solely dedicated to a drug -- no exceptions.

Leading up to the change, many thought this would spell the end of Facebook engagement for pharma. While some did flee the platform, most stayed the course and remained. (For a complete list of which pharma pages remained active after the Facebook policy change, check out my colleague Matt Snodgrass' blog post and Google Doc.)

The panic that ensued put on display an interesting problem -- far too many people are still focusing on the channel. That will get you into trouble in a big way. It's not about the channel; it's about the content. It's not about the platform; it's about the underlying principles that are driving the need for the platform.

If companies had jumped into Facebook because they were looking to engage with patients, provide a forum for feedback and embrace the shifts in today's communications landscape, the changes would have been a mere blip on the radar. Yet for some, Facebook is nothing more than an extension of their Website. That's not embracing change; it's extending the old way of doing things to new channels.

There is no guarantee that platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will continue to dominate five years from now. Focusing on developing strategies around the platform is a path to irrelevance. Instead, build strategies around the driving forces of these platforms: the consumer's need to connect directly with brands, the desire for relationship building as opposed to an adversarial relationship and the demands of transparency. These are the pillars that are supporting the explosion of social networks.

I was recently watching "Meet the Press" and Thomas Friedman, the author of The World is Flat, talked about the idea of connectivity in today's global business environment. He wrote the book in 2004 and contends that we have since moved into a world of hyperconnectivity. Think about it: when Friedman wrote his book, Facebook was just emerging on college campuses, Twitter didn't exist and LinkedIn was just getting off the ground.

That was only seven years ago and each of those are now well-established platforms. If we were connected 2004 without those platforms -- we are certainly hyperconnected now. In 2018, we will undoubtedly be clamoring about something that hasn't even been dreamed up yet. But 2018 won't look as different as one might expect because the driving forces will remain the same. Start worrying about why these platforms are so popular and forget about which ones.

Why are we adding salt to raw chicken?

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:26:47 +0100

I blogged about the changing tide and attitudes towards salt and its addition to foods. Now, after a visit to Costco, I was horrified to see that raw chicken is being sold with added salt. When did this happen? How did this happen? Anyone? Costco?

An alternative to plastic surgery?

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:11:25 +0100

Living in Los Angeles, and living and breathing food and health and plastic surgery, I was recently sent this from the UK. Gave me a chuckle and hope you ladies enjoy it too. Have a wonderful day.

“Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO what a ride!”

Will salt soon be a thing of the past?

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:47:04 +0100

Take Away Their Salt; Just Don't Tell 'Em You're Doing It
Wall Street Journal
Several major food companies have been slowly and quietly reducing the amount of sodium in their products in response to pressure from consumer watchdogs and government regulators, Ilan Brat and Maurice Tamman report. ConAgra has cut about a third of the sodium its Chef Boyardee canned pasta line over five years, for example, with nary a peep. There is, of course, a rationale to keeping mum.

"If you gradually move sodium down in products, the consumers that use those products get used to them still tasting good but at lower salt," says Douglas Balentine, Unilever's North American director of nutrition and health.

When it comes to buying healthy products, experience has shown that consumers don't always put their money where their mouths are. Kellogg, for example, launched a low-sodium version of Corn Flakes as well as Low Rice Krispies in the 1980s that had no sodium per serving versus 300 milligrams in the original cereals. It scrapped the products after four years of dismal sales.

Sarah Palin becoming a professional journalist??

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:34:12 +0100

Sarah Palin Reported to Join Fox News as a Contributor

By Clyde on Jan 11, 2010 01:23 PM

Sarah Palin has reportedly signed on as a contributor to Fox News. NYT's Media Decoder had the scoop.

"Many suspected that when Ms. Palin retired as the governor of Alaska last summer she was doing so to pursue some sort of career in television. The Fox News deal, however, would not seem to be all encompassing, and would appear to give her room for other pursuits, as well," NYT reports.

It’s A Barbecue Sauce And A Spray Cleaner! Keep away from pets and small children!

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:21:40 +0100

This post was written by Kendall Ross,a creative agency - clever, fun and smart! Here is a link to their blog http://hellokendallross.com/2010/01/04/its-a-barbecue-sauce-and-a-spray-cleaner/

It’s A Barbecue Sauce And A Spray Cleaner!

January 4, 2010

All that's missing is a Mr. Yuk sticker!

Flicking through a recent issue of Food & Beverage Packaging, I stumbled across this new packaging for barbecue sauce and nearly fell off my chair. At first I thought it was a tribute to the famous SNL “it’s a floor wax and a desert topping” skit. But no, this was barbecue sauce in the exact same bottle that is most often used for industrial cleaners and household cleaning chemicals!

Now I love it when new uses can be created from familiar objects – wine in a can, milk cartons reflecting old fashion dairy bottles, etc. But aren’t we forgetting some basic design cues that we have used to not only educate but also guide consumers so that they don’t confuse the gravy with the motor oil. Although marketed as “innovative” by the sauce company, I think this is the kind of innovation we should think twice about. Perhaps this is another indication on how far our economy and even design thinking has fallen, since it seems more like they flicked through the industrial supply catalog and said “hey, how ’bout we put it in this?” In either case, let’s create more “a-ha” in the packaging, rather then “oh-no”. I’d hate to spray my chicken with Mr. Clean because I forgot which bottle was which.

Ever baste a chicken with scrubbing bubbles?

And finally, which aisle does this belong? Should it be stored under the sink or on the pantry shelf? And doesn’t this need a Mr. Yuk sticker?

Happy New Year - Welcome 2010

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 04:04:06 +0100

How many unopened e-mails do you have remaining from 2009? Wish yourself a happy New Year and clear them out!