Monster Munch advertisements.

After much thorough research I have only been able to come across a few facts as to the origins of this Brand. In the beginning the brand was named 'The Prime Monster' , apparently in reference to the brand producer, and was launched in Britain in 1977 with Smith's being the company behind its brand. For some reason the brand was renamed 'Monster Munch' at some point 1978 with various tag-lines such as 'The Biggest Snack Pennies Can Buy' and originally had four monsters illustrated on the packaging, each relating to a particular flavour. Some of these flavours were: Roast beef, Pickled Onion, Saucy Tomato, Bacon, Cheese & Onion, King Prawn and Salt & Vinegar. Again there seems to be a lack of evidence as to what some of these monsters looked like as I was unable to find any existing images of them from an sources, even their current website ( aimed strangely at only 18+) has little of its past in the site and seems more orientated to launching their new campaign. However, thankfully, there are existing commercials of the Monster Munch brand ranging from the 70's to the mid 90's and various articles from the tabloids about the new re-launch of the brand.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/02/advertising.television

This article is a rather humorous yet genuine plea to recover the lost Monster Munch outfits used in the original advertisments during the 70's and 80's, in a new call out to the general public they have enlisted Timmy Mallet to spearhead the search via a video ( follow the link to view on the article page) where a £5000 reward for their recovery is in place.
This is a clear example of how Walkers are desperate to use the 'nostalgia' of the brand to it's full effect to the point of refusing to remake the outfits and pursuing the originals.

http://www.talkingretail.com/products/product-news/10590-walkers-brings-back-original-monster-munch.html


"...The re-launch sees the reintroduction of a bigger, crunchier Monster Munch corn snack, a bigger pack format and retro pack design featuring the loveable and iconic Monster characters ..."

A quote from the article itself which illustrates the objective of Walker's new re-launch. It notes that part of it's campaign is designed to boost the sales of single packet crisps based on impulse buying as apposed to purchacing the multi-packs. It also goes onto say "...it's the number one snack for fun and hunger fill amongst men aged 18-24..." Clearly they are enforcing the new idea of their target audience being maturer, however ironically still being aimed at those children who grew up eating them who now fit into the new target audience.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3110135/Monster-Munch-crisps-relaunched.html


This article covers the same issue as the first, being the campaign to find the missing outfits, and mostly repeats what was mentioned earlier. However there was an interesting quote from Dominic South '...he believed that eighties products were popular again "because consumers appreciate things that remind them of old times, especially of their childhoods"...

These are things to keep in mind for our project and how and what we use from the past to symbolise the 'retro' and nostalgic influence in our campaign. I think our choosing, specifically, of the Atari games fits this perfectly as on their own terms they are highly revered games and consoles that stir exactly the same emotions the Monster Munch re-launch are after.



As is made clear there are the three main monsters who each represent a certain flavour. As mentioned in the above advert they are: ' Pickled Onion' 'Saucy' and 'Roast beef' flavour. Also the use of the tag-line at the end indicates the size of the crisps themselves.








Another example of Smith's commercials for Monster Munch, note also the tag-line remains the same however it is worded differently.



Here the advert remains essentially the same, although the yellow monster featured with one eye seems to have been replaced with an orange monster with two eyes, though the change is not highlighted or explained anywhere.




Like the previous advert the colours are bold, simple and mostly adhere to the primary ones. These are of course aimed at children up to 12+, a stark contrast to the newly re-launched campaign which is aimed at students/adverts of 18+. Also the tag-line is altered, perhaps only for the special giveaways that the commercial displays or perhaps it was indeed the new one.


Below is a similar advert, this time promoting a new giveaway with the crisps and also, interestingly, features yet another unnamed monster. A small child like green monster with antennas.