Dive Brief:
- Jelly Belly has created a beer-flavored jelly bean targeted at men. The flavor is meant to evoke a Hefeweizen-inspired ale.
- This isn't the candy maker's first alcohol-inspired bean. But earlier flavors such as Strawberry Daiquiri and pomegranate cosmo were marketed at women.
- The company is also marketing a new chocolate-covered Tabasco bean at men.
Dive Insight:
This whole thing bothers us on multiple levels.
First, the whole tweak-the-product-and-sell-it-to-guys model annoys us. As we've said before, we don't buy the premise that men won't eat soup or drink soda or snack on yogurt because to do so threatens our sense of manhood.
Second, jelly beans are for kids. And as millions of grown-ups can tell you, one of the great joys of being a parent is to eat jelly beans with your kids. This is particularly true when you're eating the wacky, Harry Potter-inspired flavors that Jelly Belly sells. You want to prove you're a man? See if you can eat more vomit-flavored beans than a 10-year old can.
Third, we guys already have a role model to emulate when we're in the mood for a jelly bean. We don't need a bunch of gender-specific marketing to tell us it's OK to eat jelly beans. We know it's OK. We learned that years ago from the President of the United States. He was a guy. He was a Cold-War-winning tough guy. And he famously loved jelly beans.