At WLBOTT, bad decisions don’t just happen. We have to be proactive. And the earlier the better.
This morning, Elder JimZim commenced his itinerary of bad decisions with his breakfast choices.
He started the day with a breakfast of sardines, onions, and jalapenos.
Elder G responds…..
Ah… bad decisions, you say.
The rich fertilizer of all good stories, the spicy seasoning of life’s blandest days, the perfect excuse for an extra piece of cake.
“I wish to test the resilience of my digestive tract, my friendships, and my household air quality, all before 9 a.m.”
Elder JimZim’s choice has that perfect WLBOTT absurdist flair: slightly heroic, slightly tragic, fully aromatic.
Sardines of the Barnyard
WLBOTT is considering a competing brand – Sardines of the Barnyard.
We could have artisanal variations:
Hayloft Jalapeño Splash — “For mornings when you feel unstoppable (and unapproachable).”
Tractor Grease Garlic — “Pairs well with questionable life choices.”
Cornfield Curry Crunch — “Because sometimes you want your sardines to taste like last summer’s barn dance.”
The Tuna / Star Trek Connection
Their advertising mascot, Catalina, a blonde mermaid with a golden scepter, was introduced in the 1950s and soon became a familiar product icon. In her book The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, Grace Lee Whitney is credited as being the original Chicken of the Sea Mermaid.
Grace Lee Whitney (born Mary Ann Chase; April 1, 1930 – May 1, 2015) was an American actress and singer. Her entertainment career spanned over a half century in a variety of capacities in radio, on stage, in music as a singer and songwriter, in television and in movies. She played Janice Rand on the original Star Trek television series and subsequent Star Trek films.
Roddenberry cast Whitney in Star Trek as Yeoman[4] Janice Rand, the personal assistant to Captain James T. Kirk. While the stars of the show were William Shatner (Captain Kirk) and Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), Whitney shared the same billing as DeForest Kelley, who played Dr. McCoy.
The 41st Annual Mermaid Parade was Presented by Chicken of the Sea and Coney Island U.S.A.!
We arrived for a mermaid makeover that was perfectly fit for the Mermaid Parade with Chicken of the Sea! Prior to the parade starting, we got festival face painting and wigs, and hair coloring spray, to transform into ethereal mermaids! Also available at the Chicken of the Sea booth, was tuna of course! […]
The head mermaid for the magical float appeared ready to take on the day, and got seated on a bike, with a mini carriage for transportation, as she waved to guests.
We headed to the V.I.P. section, which was right next to the Judges, and the best spot because everyone stops and performs there. There were also magical ‘Judge Bribes’ that were given as gifts from the participants such as pastries, salads, and sunglasses. We got seated on comfy red mini-chairs that attached to the bleachers, and had wonderful holographic goodie bags on each seat waiting for us. Inside the entitled “mermaid approved” bag were hats, beaded necklaces, colorful koozies, clam fans, and on-brand ocean-esque gummies, such as Swedish Fish and more! It was hard to sit still from all the excitement with all the delicious food, drinks, costumes and floats all around.
The Chicken of the Sea float was one of the first to make its entrance and boy, did it arrive! It was loud and had energetic music blasting, a mermaid with long red hair, and a sequined blue float for the team to cheer from. Chicken of the Sea has been around for over 110 years, so of course they were awesome Headline Sponsors of the Mermaid Parade! They debuted their mermaid Catalina’s new look on the float, and she her smile on the huge graphic, dazzled everyone around.
We saw it all – the sequins, the color, the original songs, and the unique themes of each mermaid. We saw everything from goth mermaids, to mermaids on bikes with balloon designs surrounding them, to mermaids laying down on floaty clams and much more.
It was a lovely and magical overstimulation of colors and music. Everyone delivered and showed out, and everyone was represented – it was a celebration of life, love, joy and of course summer, thanks to Chicken of the Sea!
WLBOTT was unable to attend the parade in person, so we attended virtually….
A Little Background
Chicken of the Sea is a packager and provider of seafood, owned by the Thai Union Group in Samut Sakhon, Thailand. The brand is attached to tuna, salmon, clams, crab, shrimp, mackerel, oysters, kippers and sardines in cans, pouches and cups, as are its sister brands, Genova and Ace of Diamonds.
They adopted the advertising slogan “Chicken of the Sea” in the 1950s. The phrase “Chicken of the Sea”, first devised as a way to describe the taste, was so successful that soon it also became the company name.
In 2016 Chicken of the Sea recalled 107,000 cans of tuna in the US due to undercooking because of an equipment malfunction at an undisclosed factory.[2]
In May 2018, the company moved its headquarters from San Diego to El Segundo[1], California.
Product name The company’s official explanation for the name of their product is that, in the “old days”, fishermen referred to white albacore tuna as “chicken of the sea”. It was so called because of the white color of its flesh and mild flavor reminded them of chicken. The founder of the company thought it would be a unique name for a brand of tuna.
Modern poultry, particularly mass-produced chicken and turkey, is considered to be “default”, as chicken is the world’s most consumed meat and animals are bred for large muscle mass that grows faster than naturally breeding fowl; trace chemicals in the meat that would give it a distinctive flavor would thus be dispersed through larger amounts of muscle with less time to accumulate, thus giving lower concentrations per ounce of meat and creating a more generic taste.
Languages (top to bottom)
Persian
Chinese
Literary Chinese
Japanese
Korean
[…] Canada geese have been described as “the roast beef of the skies”.[3]
Elder DZ‘s first memory of “tastes like chicken” came from the movie “The Lion King.”
WLBOTT Marketing Ideas
Cans….
Evolution of the Chicken of the Sea….
Plush Toys for the Kids….
Iconography….
The Search for Our Spokesperson
We had an open casting call for the person who would become the face of “Sardines of the Barnyard.” We received the following head shots.
With these wonderful choices, how can we possibly select our candidate?
Tuna Factoids
You can find a detailed analysis of global tuna population trajectories on the PNAS web site.
Abstract
Tunas and their relatives dominate the world’s largest ecosystems and sustain some of the most valuable fisheries. The impacts of fishing on these species have been debated intensively over the past decade, ….
…. giving rise to divergent views on the scale and extent of the impacts of fisheries on pelagic ecosystems. We use all available age-structured stock assessments to evaluate the adult biomass trajectories and exploitation status of 26 populations of tunas and their relatives (17 tunas, 5 mackerels, and 4 Spanish mackerels) from 1954 to 2006. Overall, populations have declined, on average, by 60% over the past half century.
One reply on “Variations on a Theme: Chicken of the Sea”
An important lesson that I learned from the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra: “You can tune a piano but you can’t tuna fish.”