I saw Where the Wild Things Are yesterday — loved it. And I love Maurice Sendak, too, by the by (he wrote the kid’s book). When a reporter asked Sendak what he’d tell parents who thought the movie was too scary for kids, he said: “I’d tell them to go to hell.”
My kind of guy.
Anyway, WTWTA is very rare movie. More thoroughly steeped in kid logic than any other major flick I can recall — so much so that I’m really surprised it made it through the editing process with such craziness intact. It certainly doesn’t fit into your plotpoint-every-fifteen-minutes with sledgehammer-resolution-at–the-end sort of Holllywood cookiecutter flick, and I love that.
This is not to say the movie is without its conventions. For example, there’s product placement in this flick, just like any other. Though, in this case, it’s Frozen Organic Corn from Cascadian Farm. You really know your food movement has arrived when your fringe sector gets a product placement in a Hollywood movie. Organic food has officially entered the mainstream, kids. Now I’m just waiting for the day when raw milk cowshare programs get a product placement in the Spiderman franchise.
Anyway, I decided to call up Cascadian Farm customer service to see how this came about. I was on hold for a while, during which time I took bets on Twitter to see how fast a free couch would disappear from my corner, until I finally got a human. She sounded very very friendly, welcomed me to Cascadian Farm, then asked me for my zip code. I told her mine and then I asked her for her zip code. She laughed and said, “55440″ — and I recognized that she was in Minnesota, not Washington, where Cascadian Farm is located.
Oh right…., I thought. General Mills owns Cascadian Farm.
Anyway, she couldn’t tell me how Cascadian Farm Frozen Organic Corn wound up in a Spike Jonze flick, but that’s ok. I teased her about her accent, we praised the unseasonably nice weather we’re having, she took down some contact information, and now I’m going to be a taste-tester for General Mills.
Let the wild rumpus start!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NOkQ4dYVaM
Hi El Dragon,
I saw your post on Cascadian Farm and since I work in marketing on CF, I thought I would try and help shed some light. Actually, everyone on our team was just as surprised as you to see it in the movie, since we certainly didn’t pay for any placement. I was glad to see it featured though.
Sincerely,
Christian at Cascadian Farm
Hey now that’s customer service. I filled out a form at the CF website asking about the movie, and here you are!
I’m glad to hear y’all didn’t pay for the placement. I like thinking that Jonze was going for a certain kind of mom and chose CF deliberately. What’s your take?
And how come when I call the farm from Minneapolis I get General Mills? Can’t you people afford your own receptionist??
LOL all of our staff in Washington is too busy picking blueberries and planting seeds! That’s why we have our friends in Minneapolis answer the phones for us
I like to think Jonze chose Cascadian Farm deliberately too - perhaps we should send him a bag of corn to autograph? Christian at Cascadian Farm