Putting the right brand on your products must be important because it’s something that clients spend proper money on. They balk at, say, £50,000 for a year-long PR campaign, but will happily stump up double that and more for some jumped-up designer’s subtle tweak (ie unnoticed) or radical overhaul (ie unrecognisable).

Halo Foods has clearly saved on all that expense in creating Honey Monster Puffs from the ashes of Sugar Puffs. This seems to be the fmcg equivalent of mending a fence with any old bit of wood that’s lying around. Nail on a new name and hope for the best. Still, blind faith can get you anywhere, otherwise Halo wouldn’t be anticipating doubling sales to £30m by 2017 - a target so daft that even Karoline (with a K) would think twice about pitching it.

She is concerned about the long-term future of the brand though (not that they’re a client, but that doesn’t stop her), and the fact that Halo may not have noticed that honey is also sugar. Hence the unveiling of a preventative generic campaign, currently themed “Honey isn’t sugar, honey.” This is a pre-emptive attack on the “motley assembly of food fascists and anti-capitalist fun haters” (thanks K for the colourful description) who constitute the increasingly rabid ‘sugar will kill’ lobby. K thinks she’s on to a winner because honey “is a bit left wing” and apparently “liked by hippies” so less likely to come under fire. Otherwise Honey Monster Puffs are going to have to change their name again.

The fun haters will say the packet is the only part of the offering that’s less harmful than the ingredients. In any case, once the sugar and honey are gone, they’ll taste like Cardboard Puffs anyway.

Topics