the thought

Stacie Bogan

I always thought of myself as a level-headed person…until last Saturday.

I like to think that I am not the type of person who sprints out to the store to purchase the next great product just because I see it on TV or hear about it on the radio. Maybe I would if I didn’t have a husband that jumped online everyday to see what purchases I have made (tight purse strings).

Last Saturday, I was watching the Food Network http://www.foodnetwork.com, which is my new favorite channel (again I’m behind the trend). What’s interesting about this fact is that I do not cook. I hate it. But I do love to eat. So I’m watching the Food Network and there is a segment featuring Haagen-Dazs and the search for the next fantastic flavor.

Who doesn’t love ice cream? I was immediately sucked into the two hour show.

Haagen-Dazs http://www.haagen-dazs.com asked consumers to send in their unique ice cream recipes in hopes of finding the next flavor sensation. Behind the scenes they narrowed it down to five people. Each person created their flavor in the Haagen-Dazs labs and went through various rounds of judging before a winner was chosen. It came down to these three flavors:

 Toasted Sesame Coconut something
 Canolli
 Sticky Toffee Pudding.

Of course I was rooting for Sticky Toffee Pudding… the name alone had me salivating like my two dogs. Finally, after two hours of torture, the VP of Marketing at Haagen-Dazs announced (drum role) the winner is… Sticky Toffee Pudding.

Yes! (I actually shouted at the TV) What a delicious choice! As soon as I heard those words announced I immediately forced my husband into a trip to Safeway to see if they had the “limited edition” for sale.

So there I was, sprinting out of my door to purchase the next great product. Wait, this isn’t me! What am I thinking? I’d like to chalk it up to a few key factors:

 It was triple digit heat
 We don’t have air conditioning
 I have a sweet tooth (it’s medically impossible to eliminate)

I would like to point out that if the factors above were not in play I would NEVER have fallen victim to the media. So let me ask you this… have you ever fallen victim to the media? Was it worth it?

I’d have to say congratulations to Haagen Daz – their marketing efforts through the Food Network had me not only buying their ice cream, but changed my whole predictable persona to do so.