Rebranding

I've been meaning to post about this much sooner, and in my mind, the post was decorated with cute little drawings of dancing plums and maybe some senior citizens kind of doing crazy dance moves with the help of their canes and walkers. As you'll notice, none of that happened. I know that it's not literally true that every moment of my life is spent on washing dishes and laundry, but lately I've had the energy level of "nonexistent" so in fact, every moment of my life that I'm AWAKE, I'm probably working in some fashion. Ah well.

So I know that if I were to ask anyone, "hey, where do raisins come from?" it would be an easy answer to say, "Dried grapes. That's why there are dark raisins and golden raisins and red raisins. Because those are all types of grapes."

What about if I asked you where a prune comes from? Some of you might shrug and ask your grandparents. Others might grin knowingly and let the truth be heard: A prune is a dried plum.

You don't hear the word prune on TV anymore. Prune juice (in the mind of America) has long become the snack of choice for constipated seniors and ditto for prunes. Your grandmother offered you prunes when you visited. They were dry and nasty and smelled like old people.

Today's prune has shed that image. It has been rebranded. Dried plums are the snack of choice of that averagely hot guy who is eating fruit on his breakfast cereal. It is the snack of choice for that group of women on their way to yoga. There's not one mention of potential laxative properties and certainly no grandparent figures in the recent commercials.

This kind of rebranding greatly amuses me. I never thought much about prunes before but I assure you these commercials have made me think about prunes. Are they now truly a superior product to the prune of the 1950's? Or is it the same product in a cute new package?

More importantly, do people know that dried plums are prunes? And does it matter?

These, ladies and gentlemen (and dedicated spambots), are the kinds of questions that keep me up at night. You're welcome.