![]() The only other major recent candy case that Fussell recalls is the Jelly Belly brand, Bertie Botts. While a candy company with a children’s movie tie in is a natural, Fussell says it is rarer that the fictional brand becomes real. “I can tell you that in general, movie tie-ins are popular in the candy industry,” says Susan Fussell, director of public relations the Vienna, Virginia-based trade group National Confectioners Association told us by email. Other than Wonka, perhaps the best example of recent years is Del Monte’s “Scooby Snacks,” a Snausage spin-off inspired by the popular Hanna-Barbera cartoon. That’s not the usual way it works-mostly it’s the real-life cameo appearance/product placement of a brand in a film or TV show. ![]() Perhaps it’s a new brand category-Fictional Brands Become Real? Certainly, television makes businesses famous–think Boston’s Bull & Finch, which became famous as Cheers Beacon Hill–but with Wonka, it’s as if Warner Brothers had started Acme Explosives or the BBC opened a Fawlty Towers inn. Other than the movie itself, one of the most lasting remnants of the movie is Société des Produits Nestle S.A.’s candy brand Wonka, which is one of the rare fictional brands mentioned in a movie that has become a real company-in this case a subsidiary of the Vevey, Switzerland-based food company. The Warner Brothers movie is a classic, so much so that names like Veruca Salt (the spoiled “I want it now” girl) and Oompah Loompas are, respectively, shorthand for brats and short folks. To parent’s delight, the brand story includes a yin-yang of fantasy and moralistic disgust for the sins of gluttony, envy and such. Wonka’s fictional factory is old-world looking, filled with candy flowers, rides and chocolate rivers, ready to turn into a theme attraction. Wonka, the owner, is a fixture of international media interest. ![]() In fiction, it comes out of a wildly psychedelic factory, each candy sub-brand, like Everlasting Gobstoppers, with its own quirky brand story. From the start (and as fictionally conceived by the British author Roald Dahl) Wonka embodies every characteristic a great candy brand might have. It would be hard to create a candy brand more perfect than Willy Wonka’s. Wonka Runts, one of the spin off candies.
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