The Candyfreak Speaks

So you think you like candy? Have you eaten a piece every day of your life? Author Steve Almond has, and lived to write about it.

Almond is the author of “Candyfreak,” a very funny memoir detailing his passion for all thing chocolate and sweet. While at his Massachusetts home caring for his newborn daughter, he chatted with us recently via e-mail about his obsession, and which companies he thinks are doing the best job at marketing their sugary wares.

If you’re hungry for more from Almond, signed first editions of “Candyfreak” are available at http://www.candyfreak.com.

CM PLUS: In your opinion, as an ultra-informed candy consumer, which candy companies/brands are doing a great job marketing their products?

ALMOND: Well, Hershey’s struck gold with the concept of brand extensions (Kit Kat Darks, White Chocolate Kit Kats, Mint Kit Kats, etc.) They’ve done an amazing job of using their core brands to introduce new flavors, though, as noted in “Candyfreak,” it sucks when they introduce an amazing new bar, only to pull it a few months later.

CM PLUS: Which are really missing the mark?

ALMOND: Well, I know that Mars has been struggling with Snickers recently. For years, it was the number one bar, unrivaled, and all of sudden, it’s fallen to number two. Their new marketing campaign is quite cerebral — which seems just the wrong approach for us drooling candyfreaks. We basically want the focus kept as primal, and oral, as possible.

CM PLUS: Do any candy marketing efforts from your youth stick out as really memorable?

ALMOND: Well, the Almond Joy/Mounds jingle certainly stood out, because I had to hear it EVERY SINGLE DAY OF MY LIFE. But the one I remember the most clearly was a series of ads for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, in which someone eating a chocolate bar would stumble and stick his chocolate bar, mistakenly, into a jar of peanut butter being eaten by someone else. Then they would have this jaunty argument: “You stuck your chocolate in my peanut butter!” “You got your peanut butter on my chocolate bar!” Then they would take a bite and both be happy. I LOVED those ads. I LOVED seeing the chocolate dunked into the peanut butter, perhaps because one of my favorite homemade candy bars was to take a spoonful of peanut butter and sprinkle it with chocolate chips.

CM PLUS: Hershey denied your request to use the Almond Joy/Mounds jingle in the book, but sent you a $1 coupon with the rejection letter. Did you use the coupon?

ALMOND: No. I posted it on my wall along with the letter from the Hershey’s attorney. It was such a pathetic example of the dehumanized corporate mentality.

CM PLUS: Is your candy consumption influenced by advertising? Has your candy purchasing ever been adversely impacted by advertising, perhaps a campaign so bad it turned you off a product?

ALMOND: Not really. Ads speak to our limbic brains. If they’re doing their job right, we don’t even realize how we’re being influenced.

CM PLUS: What’s your favorite piece of candy advertising, and is it related to your favorite candy?

ALMOND: I mentioned the Reese’s ad above. The thing I love about candy bars — and this is something I detail in the book — is that they tend to reflect the culture at large. The manufacturers are always trying to cash in on cultural trends.

CM PLUS: Do you visit a lot of candy Web sites?

ALMOND: Honestly, when I go on the Web it’s usually to read about the war in Iraq, or the policies coming out of Washington. As much as I love candy, it’s important to recognize what’s happening in the world.

CM PLUS: Were you surprised at the response to your book, and the number of people who still visit your site two years after it was first published to testify their own candy passions?

ALMOND: Shocked. Totally shocked. I mean, I knew I was obsessed, but had always considered myself a freak. It didn’t occur to me — until the book came out — that so many other people had these intense, primal feelings about candy. But really, most people are closet obsessives. They’re just waiting for someone to give them permission to come out of the closet.

CM PLUS: Will you encourage your daughter if she has her
Own “candyfreak” tendencies?

ALMOND: Jeez. That’s a tough question. I mean, my wife and I LOVE candy, and we eat far too much of it. But it really does bad things to kids, gets them all hyped up, then they crash and get cranky. So it’s something I’ll have to really be careful about — one of those “Do as I say, not as I do” type deals. I may have to go back into the closet as a candyfreak, at least until she’s old enough to figure out the truth.