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August
15, 2007:
Fascinating Food History
Interview
with Carolyn Wyman, author of Better
Than Homemade
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Mike
Carruthers:
Although we hear a lot about buying and eating less processed
foods…
Carolyn Wyman:
Really the best selling products in America are still things
like Hamburger Helper and Cheez Whiz and Kraft Macaroni and
Cheese - these are not peripheral, they're really still doing
quite well.
Carolyn Wyman,
author of the book Better
Than Homemade, has researched the history of some of these
foods - for example Kraft Macaroni and Cheese…
That product
was actually invented by a salesman for a macaroni company in
St. Louis. He found out that he could kind of unload a lot more
of his macaroni if he attached little packets of dried Kraft
cheese to them. And Kraft got wind that he was doing this and
hired him and said, "Do it for us."
Hawaiian Punch
was invented in the 20's but really became popular in the 50's
when a TV commercial for Hawaiian Punch was broadcast on the
Tonight Show with Jack Paar. It showed that little guy that
asked everybody, "How'd you like a nice Hawaiian Punch?"
- and then he'd hit them.
Jack Paar saw
that ad with this guy and it seemed so outrageous, this guy
just like walloping these tourists - that he actually, Jack
Paar said, "I want to see that ad again." - I mean
that wouldn't happen today, so he re-ran the ad for free and
it became like the talk of the town and sales just took off.
Tomorrow, how
TV dinners got their start - I'm Mike Carruthers and that's
Something You Should Know.
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