10 of the Weirdest Licensing Deals Ever, Starting With Gene Simmons and Hello Kitty
Gene Simmons' band Kiss is working on a co-branding deal with Sanrio's Hello Kitty. As in, too-much-tongue meets doesn't-have-a-mouth. But it's not the weirdest such agreement out there. Here are 9 other licensing/branding deals every bit as odd:
- KFC and The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation: A KFC franchise in Utah will give $1 for each $3 Mega Jug of soda customers buy. The Mega Jug holds a half-gallon of liquid, which works out to 800 calories of a non-diet soda. JDRF has defended the agreement on the grounds that Type 1 diabetes, which is what they do research on, is not related to obesity.
- Montblanc and Gandhi: To honor the great man's 140th birthday, Montblanc put out a $24,000 gold pen. The gold and silver limited edition pen had an engraving of Gandhi and came with an eight-meter golden thread that can be wound around the pen, representing the spindle and cotton Gandhi used to weave simple cloth. Only 241 of the hand-crafted pens were made, one for each mile Gandhi walked in his famous march against salt taxes in 1930.
- The Muppets and Law & Order: SVU: In honor of Sesame Street's 37th season, a DVD set of Law & Order: SVU (y'know, the L&O that focuses on sex crimes and/or crimes against children) included a 4-minute Sesame Street sketch, Law and Order: Special Letters Unit, as a bonus feature. The sketch featured an alphabet parody starring a group of Muppets. Detectives Meloni, Mariska, and Munch search for a missing letter "M."
- Hannah Montana branded cherries: No comment.
- Barack Obama commemorative chocolates: To honor the swearing in of our first African-American president, online confectioner CandyExpress sold chocolates in the shape of his head. It could have been worse. In Russia the president was used to advertise a tanning salon, a dental clinic and pre-packaged ice cream with the slogan "Everyone's talking about it: dark inside white!" The bars had a chocolate-flavored center embedded in a layer of vanilla.
- Woolworths and Lolita: The UK chain withdrew its brand-name Lolita beds, designed for six-year-old girls, after furious parents pointed out that the name was synonymous with sexually active pre-teens.
- Spongebob Squarepants Rectal Thermometer: "Plays SpongeBob SquarePants Theme at the end of temperature taking."
- Barbie Rice Krispies Treats: If these don't cause anorexia, I don't know what will. Proposed slogan: Eat these because really you're never going to look like Barbie.
- Hello Kitty Vibrator: You're going to have to take my word on this, because there's no way I'm linking to it.
Suddenly the Gene Simmons thing seems kinda boring. (Also, someone seems to have beaten them to it.)
Photo: JD Hancock, Creative Commons license
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