Trump Hair Cotton Candy and other unusual items at the Sweets & Snacks Expo

The annual Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago this week had its share of unusual products. Here are a few of them.

Chocolate Storybrook of West Des Moines, Iowa, has made Trump Hair Cotton Candy. The butterscotch-flavored candy was inspired by the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump.

Treat Street has made Lolli-Poops Lollipops, which are fruity lollipops shaped like the poop emoji character. Treat Street is a brand owned by My Favorite Company of Los Angeles.

Jelly Belly Candy Company of Fairfield, Calif., showed off the latest weird flavors in its Bean Boozled line of jelly beans. The candy challenges users to eat such jelly bean flavors as stinky socks, lawn clippings, canned dog food, booger and barf.

Bebeto of Turkey has made Crayola Gummies, which hopefully won’t encourage kids to eat crayons. What’s next? Tide Pod gummies?

HotLix of Grover Beach, Calif., showed off its latest line of edible insects, including crickets and earthworms. The company’s crispy crickets come flavored with bacon and cheese, salt and vinegar, and sour cream and onion.

Thanks, but I’ll stick with chocolate.

Hershey, Hostess Brands make a splash at Sweets & Snacks Expo

Keeping up with changing consumer tastes can be a daunting challenge for food companies. That was evident this week at the Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago.
Candy giant Hershey and sweet baked goods maker Hostess Brands were among the many companies at the show discussing how they are evolving their product lineups for today’s picky consumers.

Hershey a snacking powerhouse

Hershey is diversifying its product lineup and becoming more focused on snacks as opposed to just sweets.
“Hershey’s vision is to be an innovative snacking powerhouse,” Laura Renaud, Hershey corporate spokesperson said.
Hershey CEO Michele Buck oversaw the acquisitions of jerky maker Krave Pure Foods in 2015 and Amplify Snack Brands, maker of SkinnyPop popcorn, in January.
Hershey also has blurred the lines between candy and snacks with such products as Hershey’s and Reese’s Popped Snack Mix and Dipped Pretzels.
Its products are being found increasingly in the same grocery store aisle as nuts, chips and other snacks instead of just the candy aisle, Renaud said.
Hershey also is focused on filling consumer needs for energy boosts throughout the day with protein snacks, she said.
It is repositioning its Payday candy bar as a snacking product because it is salty and sweet and packed with peanuts for protein.
“They’re really great for energy, that afternoon pick-me-up,” Renaud said. “People traditionally don’t think of a candy bar that way.”
At this year’s Sweets & Snacks Expo, Hershey’s touted products launched earlier in the year. They include Hershey’s Gold and Reese’s Outrageous.
Launched with the Winter Olympics, Hershey’s Gold is a proprietary blend of caramelized creme with peanuts and pretzels.
Reese’s Outrageous features caramel and crunchy Reese’s Pieces candy surrounded by creamy peanut butter and covered in smooth milk chocolate.

Hostess success story

Hostess Brands is writing its turnaround story thanks to product innovation in the sweet bakery goods market.
After the original Hostess was liquidated in bankruptcy proceedings in 2013, a private equity firm purchased the company’s snack cake business. It restarted the business with a clean slate five years ago. It went from no sales to $1.2 billion in sales since then.
“It really is a great comeback story,” said Andy Jacobs, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Hostess Brands.
Hostess simplified the company’s manufacturing and distribution structure and began developing new products, he said.
“The category was sleepy,” he said. “We’re going to drive innovation. We are going to shake up the category.”
Take the company’s well-known Twinkie snack cake, which is traditionally a golden sponge cake filled with white creme. Last year, for the first time, the company offered a chocolate sponge cake Twinkie, based on feedback from consumers.
At the Sweets & Snacks Expo, it showed off a chocolate cake Twinkie with peanut butter creme filling.
“If you walk around the show, particularly over to the confection guys, the No. 1 flavor in snacking is chocolate and peanut butter,” he said.
Hostess also makes seasonal Twinkies such as a red peppermint Twinkie for Christmas and this summer a cotton candy-flavored Twinkie.
“The success of the Hostess comeback is rooted in a foundation of extended shelf life,” Jacobs said. “We have this extended shelf life technology that’s a natural enzyme that helps extend the shelf life to 65 days. Because of that we have the opportunity to sell sweet baked goods on Amazon.”
Other iconic Hostess brands include Ho Hos, Ding Dongs and Zingers.
In February, Hostess purchased certain breakfast snack assets from Aryzta, including the Big Texas and Cloverhill brands and a Chicago area bakery facility. The deal will add honeybuns, Danish pastries and cinnamon rolls to its product lineup.

Sweets & Snacks Expo 2018: hot and spicy, sweet and sour, and everything in between

The annual Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago provided a comprehensive look at the state of snacking and treating today.
The three-day show wrapped up Thursday at the McCormick Place convention center. Candy and snack makers from 90 countries converged at the expo to entice retailers with their latest tasty creations. The expo drew about 900 exhibitors and some 18,000 attendees.
Flavor and ingredient trends at the show included new uses for coconut and caramel, alternative types chips (beans, quinoa, seaweed, cauliflower, etc.), and the extremes of spicy hot and super sour.
The percentage breakdown of products at the show is about 60-40, with sweets still dominating.
Ruby chocolate had its U.S. coming-out party at the show. Cocoa and chocolate producer Barry Callebaut introduced the new chocolate last September. Made from the ruby cocoa bean, the pink chocolate is the fourth type of chocolate after milk, dark and white.
The product named “best in show” by a panel of experts was Hostess Bakery Petites, “poppable” cake and brownie treats, from Hostess Brands. Poppable is an industry term for a small bite-sized snack that can be popped into your mouth.
You pick up a lot of trade lingo at a conference like Sweets & Snacks. Not many places do you hear conversations about “flavor technology” and “taste science.”
Other award-winning products at the show included:

• Hershey’s Gold candy bar with caramelized creme, peanuts and pretzels
• Justin’s Mini White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
• Warheads Dippin’ Ring, a candy ring with sour candy dipping powder, from Impact Confections
• Crispy Trail Mix Crackers, made with mung beans, cashew nuts, raisins, sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds, from In Season Snacks
• Tangerine Vanilla Cashew-Macadamia Glazed Mix from Sahale Snacks, a unit of J.M. Smucker
• Tic Tac Cool Tropical sugar-free gum from Italian confectioner Ferrero
• Big Chewy Nerds crunchy and chewy candy from Nestle
• ParmCrisps Trios with three types of crisps: cheese, almonds and pumpkin seeds, and apricots and cranberries from That’s How We Roll

Larry Levin, executive vice president, consumer and shopper marketing, for marketing consulting firm IRI identified four products at the show as “rising stars”: Hershey’s Gold, M&M Caramel, Lay’s Poppables, and Kinder Joy.
Popular in Europe, Kinder Joy has only been available in the U.S. since January. It comes in a plastic egg-shaped package that splits in two, with one half containing layers of cocoa and milk cream and the other half containing a toy. Kinder Joy is made by Ferrero.
Just Born Quality Confections of Bethlehem, Pa., was at the Sweets & Snacks Expo showing off its latest candies. They included Mike and Ike Mega Mix Sour and Hot Tamales Fire & Ice.
Mike and Ike Mega Mix Sour features 10 flavors of sour fruit candies. Hot Tamales Fire & Ice pairs the No. 1 cinnamon candy with a cool mint flavored candy.
“It’s about the trend of extremes,” said Koren Ivie, brand manager for Mike and Ike and Hot Tamales brand candies for Just Born.
Both are expected to be popular with young people who like extreme candies, especially ones that are highly sharable, she said.
Quite a few companies at the show played into the healthy food trend.
Lotus Natural Foods of Charlotte, N.C., was promoting its Bear Nibbles fruit rollups at the expo. Its products feature healthy extras added to the fruit.
For instance, the Bear Nibbles apple fruit rollup contains seaweed and the raspberry rollup also has apple, pear and carrot.
Alexandra Braverman, key account manager for Bear Nibbles, said the products have resonated with parents who want healthy snacks that taste great to feed their kids.
“Kids don’t even know they’re eating healthy,” she said.
Product innovation was a key theme of this year’s Sweets and Snacks Expo as food manufacturers try to compete with more commodity-like store-brand products.
Hello Delicious Brands of Northbrook, Ill., presented its latest snacks, including oven-baked pizza chips, fruit-filled snacks and popcorn crackers.
“We’re a snack innovation company,” Melissa Everitt, director of sales for Hello Delicious Brands, said. “We want to bring unique and different snacks to stores, no me-too products.”

Related articles:

Sweets And Snacks Stocks Snap, Crackle And Drop (Investor’s Business Daily; May 24, 2018)

Amazon Widens Its Influence Even More And Takes A Bite Out Of Snacks (Investor’s Business Daily; May 24, 2018)

Artwork: Sweets & Snacks Expo.

Is Elon Musk serious about getting into the candy business?

Earlier this month, business magnate, inventor and engineer Elon Musk got into a tiff with billionaire investor Warren Buffett. It started with a difference of opinion about the business concept of moats and ended with Musk vowing to take on Buffett in the candy industry.
Buffett’s holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns See’s Candies. Based in South San Francisco, Calif., See’s Candies is 47th largest candy company in the world with annual sales of about $430 million, according to Candy Industry magazine.
Buffett said Musk wouldn’t want to come after him in the candy business. But Musk accepted the challenge. He took to Twitter and wrote, “I’m starting a candy company & it’s going to be amazing.”
He added, “I am super super serious.”
Musk then solicited advice from his Twitter followers about what they’d wish for in his candy venture. Some suggested that Musk be like fictional Willy Wonka and give out golden tickets for rides on his SpaceX rocket.
The National Confectioners Association joined in the fun and invited Musk to the annual Sweets and Snacks Expo, which runs May 22 through 24 in Chicago. The trade group even registered him for the event, hoping he’ll show up.
Is Musk just pulling everybody’s leg? Or is he really truly interested in getting into the candy business?
Musk has been involved in a host of businesses including PayPal, SolarCity and Tesla. So we’ll see.

I am super super serious

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 5, 2018

Ok ok, just for sake of argument, what do u wish for in candy? 🍭

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 5, 2018

Hey @elonmusk – Since you’re interested in the candy biz, we’ve registered you for the industry’s most important B2B event: @CandyUSA’s Sweets & Snacks Expo. Hope to see you in Chicago, 5/22-24. Find out why you should be there - https://t.co/9RN225Zbaa. #SSE18 pic.twitter.com/RhmYQYgtLP

— Sweets & Snacks Expo (@SWEETSandSNACKS) May 8, 2018

Related articles:

Musk Is ‘Super Super Serious’ About Attacking Buffett's Candy Moat (Bloomberg; May 5, 2018)

Warren Buffett Vs. Elon Musk: Who’s Better at Selling Candy? (Wall Street Journal; May 5, 2018)

Why Elon Musk and Warren Buffett Are Suddenly Trolling Each Other Over See's Candies (Fortune; May 5, 2018)

Photo: Elon Musk at a SpaceX facility in Texas in September 2012. (Photo by Steve Jurvetson on Flickr.)

President Trump incites Europe, Iran on latest magazine covers

It’s getting harder and harder for magazine publishers to shock with their covers about President Donald Trump.
German news magazine Der Spiegel illustrated Trump giving Europe the middle finger on its May 12 issue. U.K. magazine The Spectator had Trump thumbing his nose at Iran’s leader on its latest issue.
The New Yorker magazine continued its comedic approach to depicting Trump by showing him golfing in a swamp on its May 21 cover.
Here are the latest magazine covers featuring the 45th president of the United States.

Favorite websites in review, part 13

Over the past nine years, Tech-media-tainment has shined a spotlight on more than 300 interesting and entertaining websites.
What follows is the latest roundup of 25 websites given the seal of approval by Tech-media-tainment.

301. Ancestry.com (ancestry.com)
302. CalendarHome (calendarhome.com)
303. Cover Stories (marklives.com/category/columns/maglove)
304. Will Robots Take My Job? (willrobotstakemyjob.com)
305. Car logos and car company logos worldwide (car-logos.org)
306. Movie Heds (twitter.com/movieheds)
307. Scientwehst (instagram.com/scientwehst)
308. Jody Draws (jodydraws.com)
309. Rock Hall Monitors (rockhallmonitors.blogspot.com)
310. E-rockracy (e-rockracy.com)
311. Lou Malnati’s Tastes of Chicago (tastesofchicago.com)
312. All Fifty States Club
313. amCharts (amcharts.com/visited_states)
314. Gas Food No Lodging Visited States Map Generator (www.gasfoodnolodging.com/visitedstates)
315. MapLoco (maploco.com/visited-states)
316. The Kitten Covers (thekittencovers.tumblr.com)
317. Social Decay (behance.net/andreilacatusu)
318. Lego The 100
319. Bad Lip Reading (youtube.com/user/BadLipReading)
320. Without Music (youtube.com/user/houseofhaloNL)
321. Tronicbox (youtube.com/c/TRONICBOX)
322. Homemade Movies (youtube.com/user/CineFix)
323. iHeartRadio Graduation Playlist (iheart.com/graduation-playlist)
324. Netflix DVD (dvd.netflix.com)
325. Online Charts (onlinecharttool.com)

Photo from Scientwehst.

How many Netflix DVD subscribers are there?

For the past seven years, Netflix has been downplaying its legacy DVD-by-mail service as it promotes its streaming video service.
On-demand streaming video has proven to be wildly popular. But while the company’s internet television network has advantages in ease of use, it doesn’t have the vast movie selection that Netflix’s DVD service offers.
Netflix ended the first quarter with 125 million streaming video subscribers worldwide, including 56.7 million in the U.S. But what’s going on with its domestic DVD service?
It finished the quarter with 3.17 million DVD subscribers. That’s down about 20% year over year.
I’m a fan of the Netflix DVD service and am concerned about its future. Its subscriber count has been declining rapidly. That’s partly because Netflix doesn’t really promote the service, aside from social media outreach.
Netflix started as a DVD-by-mail service in 1998. It began offering streaming video for no extra charge to DVD subscribers in January 2007.
In September 2010, it started offering its first streaming-only service in Canada. It added these first international subscribers to its total subscriber number that quarter and didn’t break out DVD subscribers.
In the second quarter of 2010, its last before the Canadian streaming-only service launch, Netflix had 15 million DVD subscribers.
For the next four quarters, Netflix didn’t disclose DVD subscribers, but the number likely hit 20 million.
It started breaking out DVD-only subscriber numbers in the third quarter of 2011. By that time, it was offering streaming-only plans in the U.S., Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. In the U.S., subscribers who wanted DVDs and streaming had to pay for two plans.
In Q3 2011, Netflix had 13.93 million DVD subscribers. Over the next six years, the DVD service lost 74% of its subscribers.
In a May 15 report, Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson predicted that Netflix’s DVD service would end 2018 with 2.7 million subscribers, down 20% from 2017.
He predicts a similar rate of decline for the next two years. Olson believes the Netflix DVD service will have 2.15 million subscribers at the end of 2019 and 1.72 million by the end of 2020.

Related articles:

What happens when studios stop releasing movies on disc? (Tech-media-tainment; April 21, 2018)

Movie fans need to keep Netflix DVD business alive (Tech-media-tainment; May 10, 2017)

Ode to the Netflix DVD rental queue (Tech-media-tainment; May 8, 2017)

Photos:
Artwork celebrating 20 years of Netflix DVDs by mail. (Netflix)
Plotted line chart made at Online Charts with data from Netflix. (Click for larger view.)

Popular songs today are more depressing than those from three decades ago

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have determined that modern pop music is more depressing than tunes from three decades ago.
Their study determined that music from 2015 is about 20% more unhappy than it was in 1985. Researchers looked at the lyrics and acoustic properties of hundreds of thousands of songs and came to the conclusion that music isn’t has happy as it used to be. (See articles by AP, Paper and the Daily Mail.)
Judging from the current list of hit songs, the trend is continuing. The top 10 songs in the U.S. this week include such downers as “This Is America” by Childish Gambino, “Psycho” by Post Malone, and “No Tears Left To Cry” by Ariana Grande.
Coincidentally, iHeartRadio is publicizing an application called Graduation Playlist that lets you see what songs were popular in the year you graduated from school.
My high school graduation year (1980) included such hits as “Any Way You Want It” by Journey, “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2” by Pink Floyd, “Heartbreaker” by Pat Benatar, “What I Like About You” by The Romantics, “Brass In Pocket” by The Pretenders, “Train in Vain” by The Clash, “He’s So Shy” by The Pointer Sisters, “Upside Down” by Diana Ross, “Refugee” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “Misunderstanding” by Genesis, “Hungry Heart” by Bruce Springsteen, and “Boulevard” by Jackson Browne.

The unsolved disappearance of Timmothy Pitzen

Seven years ago this month, a six-year-old Aurora, Ill., boy vanished without a trace and police still don’t know what happened to him.
The boy, Timmothy Pitzen, disappeared while on a trip across suburban Chicago and southern Wisconsin with his mentally troubled mother.
His mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, unexpectedly checked him out of school early on Wednesday May 11, 2011, and left town. Her husband, the boy’s father, says he did not know about his wife’s plans.
Amy took Timmothy to Brookfield Zoo and two indoor amusement and water parks. Security camera footage from a Wisconsin Dells water park showed the two together on Friday May 13, 2011.
Amy was found dead of a suicide on Saturday May 14 in a Rockford, Ill., motel. She checked in alone the day before.
She left a note saying that her son was fine and she had put him in the care of unnamed individuals.
I hope Timmothy is found safe and sound one day. And that this mystery is put to rest.

Related articles:

Have you seen this child? Timmothy Pitzen (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children)

Father of Timmothy Pitzen Desperate To Find His Son After 6 Years (MyStateLine; May 15, 2017)

Timmothy Pitzen, 6, missing after mother found dead by suicide (Crime Watch Daily; April 25, 2017)

Pitzen case to be featured on '20/20' TV show (Chicago Tribune; Dec. 24, 2015)

'You Will Never Find Him': A Mother’s Chilling Vow After Kidnapping Son and Killing Herself (People; Oct. 28, 2015)

Grieving mother reads daughter’s suicide note (CNN; June 3, 2014)

Hoping for the safe return of Timmothy Pitzen (Tech-media-tainment; May 26, 2011)

Denmark joins post-apocalyptic TV series trend with ‘The Rain’

The post-apocalyptic TV genre continues to thrive despite some recent cancellations.
The latest show in the genre is “The Rain,” which premiered on Netflix worldwide on May 4 with eight episodes. There’s no word yet on whether the Danish show will get a second season.
“The Rain” follows a group of young survivors six years after a brutal virus carried by the rain killed most people in Scandinavia.
The series has received mostly positive reviews. It currently shows 85% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
The premiere of “The Rain” comes as other post-apocalyptic-themed shows have ended or are ending their runs.
Earlier this year “Extinct” on BYUtv was canceled after one season. Last week, “The Last Man on Earth” on Fox was canceled after four seasons. And “12 Monkeys” on Syfy ends its four-season run this summer.
But fear not, fans of post-apocalyptic entertainment, more shows are on the way.
This fall, Fox is scheduled to premiere the vampire-apocalypse show “The Passage.” It is based on author Justin Cronin’s best‐selling trilogy of the same name.
And season eight of “American Horror Story” called “Radioactive” reportedly has a post-apocalyptic setting.
There are now 11 post-apocalyptic shows currently airing, led by “The Walking Dead” on AMC and “The 100” on the CW.

Related article:

Comprehensive list of post-apocalyptic TV shows

Photos: “The Rain” (Netflix)

Stormy Daniels’ tryst with Donald Trump spawns opportunistic porn movies

President Donald Trump is approaching an interesting milestone. The real-estate-mogul-turned-reality-TV-star-turned-politician has been parodied or exploited in 18 porn movies. Among public figures, he ranks second to actor Charlie Sheen in porn parodies and X-rated films featuring real-life lovers. Sheen is No. 1 with 20 movies inspired by his shenanigans.
Trump was parodied twice in porn movies based on his TV series “The Celebrity Apprentice.” As a presidential candidate, he inspired 12 porn movies. And as the 45th president of the United States, he has been lampooned in two porn movies to date.
His liaison with porn star Stormy Daniels has spawned two compilation videos featuring the adult film actress. “Stormy Trumps All” was released on Feb. 14 and “Stormy Daniels’ Cum Before the Storm” comes out on May 11.
If the Stormy Daniels’ story has legs, there may well be more Trump-themed porn videos ahead. And Trump could eventually overtake Sheen for the top spot for real-life inspirations for porn movies.

Related article: List of the top real-life targets for porn parodies and exploitation.