Demon Snack Cakes      (November 14th, 2002)

now I realize that given my normal vein of work this one may strike you as out of left field. Well, yes, yes it is. But never fear, there *is* a story behind it. It all started innocently enough, on renenet's Live Journal:

renenet wrote, @ 2002-11-04 12:54:00

I just got into my office, and I don't think I'm quite in the working frame of mind yet. For example, I just glanced down at notes from a meeting (written in my very own handwriting) that happen to be sitting on my desk, and I thought I saw the words "demon snack cakes." Looking more closely at the real words, I can't even tell which part I was looking at because there is nothing that remotely resembles "demon snack cakes" on that page. I bet Clem eats Little Debbie™ Demon Snack Cakes and has taste tests with them. (They come in different flavors, of course.)

Well, this concept had me rolling, so I responded:

vrya wrote @ 2002-11-04 11:54

rofl RE: Little Debbie™ Demon Snack Cakes. I think this would merit a fake-advertisement along these lines. Clem can be the spokes-demon. Little Debbie needs horns. I'll have to keep my eye out for a suitable Clem cap...

Now a sane person would have just smiled, nodded and backed away slowly avoiding eye-contact, but renenet actually encouraged me by posting the following memo:

renenet wrote, @ 2002-11-04 18:14

Memo
To: Advertising and Marketing Team
From: New Product Development Team
Re: Little Debbie® Demon Snack Cakes Project

Clem as spokes-demon is a go! Upper Management agrees with selection. They believe that Clem's affable yet clearly non-human charms will reach the lucrative and ever-expanding snack-loving demon demographic. Screen test of Clem saying, "Whenever I get demon snack hungry, Little Debbie®'s got a snack for me," pushed him over the top.

Have not yet made final decision on whether to go with snack cakes shaped like demons (which might be fun) or snack cakes resembling things demons like to snack upon (which might be more fun). For an example of the latter, imagine Be My Valentine Cakes with blood red icing (for the visual appeal of Be My Valentine Iced Brownies) with strawberry jelly filling. We'll also be cross-promoting the previously established Devil Cremes® Cakes and Devil Squares® Cakes products to the demon market.

P.S. Little Debbie has horns. Why do you think she wears that hat?

Now honestly, how was I gonna pass *that* up? So, putting my sanity somewhat in question as well, I responded with a memo of my own:

vrya wrote, @ 2002-11-05 05:44

Subject: Memo
TO: New Product Development Team
FROM: Advertising and Marketing Team
Re: Little Debbie® Demon Snack Cakes Project

The marketing team consensus is that we need to intensify our brand identification within the snack-loving demon community with a demon-friendly version of our venerable logo, one that will showcase our willingness to embrace this un-mined segment of the snack-cake demographic. Our graphic artist has produced the following design for review by the upper management:

Please keep us posted as to the progress the engineers are making with the new cake specifications. Our staff looks forward to providing your division with studio photography of the new product line as soon as samples are available.

Sincerely,
Advertising and Marketing Team

So this conversation was brewing in the back of my mind, and a couple days later, inspiration struck. Here's how I described it in an e-mail to renenet:

Just wanted to see if I could catch you before you head out of town with a little image I spent *way* too much time on last night. Couldn't help it, I was going to take a nap before Step class, and then I got an idea. An Awful Idea! The girl got a Wonderful, *Awful* idea. And that was the end of my nap, I was to busy figuring out how to accomplish it. It's not finished yet, I still have to come with the rest of the advertising spread, but I thought you might like a sneak preview.

The preview in question was the "kittens in box" part of the finished collage. The rest of it (banner across the top, additional kitten, text, etc) was added over the next few days. I never was able to find a quality clem Cap in a satisfactory position/expression, so he kinda get edged out. Maybe someday though!

And that's the whole, silly story. btw, if anyone who can muster some musical talent and come up with a jingle, that would be cool ;-)

On a technical note, the alt version shows the composite images I used to construct the final image. I don't do a lot of manip, so I was quite pleased that it came together as well as it did... here's how I explained it to renenet:

Never had much call to do death-by-cuteness-induced-sugar-rush stuff (kitten fanart, what's next, unicorns and rainbows?) but this was just too much fun. I actually raided my freezer for a nearly empty box to turn inside out and photograph for the box, and then I made the layout for the front of the box and applied a filter so that it was turned into tiny little dots as if it had been printed (can't see this on the version I sent, though; my original is a bit larger), then I distorted it until it fit the perspective of the photo. The kittens in the box are two separate images (from gettyone.com)... manip's not my speciality so I don't think those kittens quite look like they're inside that box, but if it's close enough to be funny, that's the important part!

NOTE: no kittens were harmed during the creation of this advertisement. Nor do I advocate the consumption of kittens as a snack food. I think they'd be better in stew.

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