Dive Brief:
- Kraft Foods is debuting tubs of cream cheese with bacon under its Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Oscar Mayer brands.
- The new product is just the latest effort in a series of initiatives aimed at revamping the image of the Philadelphia brand. Kraft recently introduced other flavors, a new ad campaign, and has shifted the product to oval-shaped tubs, abandoning the round tubs the product has used for decades.
- The new bacon cream cheese line, which prominently displays both the Philadelphia and Oscar Mayer logos, will get a dedicated ad campaign later this year.
Dive Insight:
Off hand this would appear to be a winning product. America's obsession with bacon shows no sign of abating anytime soon. And cream cheese is always pretty wonderful, unless you happen to be lactose intolerant. Certainly business consultants, who love to use the word "synergies" when talking about the advantages of "thinking outside the box," will be pleased to have a real-world example of two brands working to create a single product.
Still, we can't help but worry that certain cheese lovers, affineurs, and traditionalists will be upset that this particular product may deter some attention from the most important day of the year: National Moldy Cheese Day.