Soap Box Blog: Maoam’s packs may be fruity but ‘food porn’ is nothing new

Things took a turn for the strange when the Daily Mail published a disgruntled reader’s letter about his disgust at the illustrations used on Maoam sweet packets. According to Simon Simpkins, from Pontefract, West Yorkshire, the fruit cartoons appeared to be “locked in a carnal encounter” – lucky them.

So there I was, sitting listening to the Haribo theme tune sung in foreign languages, contemplating how I was going to ask why the lemon looked so happy. Thankfully, Haribo took the news in good spirits, adding the Maoam character was just “a unique and jovial figure”.

And where would we be without such characters? Remember Mr Soft, the big rubbery man behind the 1980s Soft Mints campaign? What about Black Jack and Fruit Salad sweets? Then there’s the recently redesigned Chewie the Chewitsaurus. All of these characters managed to escape the condemnation of the Daily Mail.

My own personal favourite is the dinosaur from the Natural Confectionery Company. I think my love of the character is based on his disdain for his fellow bear sweet’s attempts at roaring in the adverts. A slightly sarcastic sweet is obviously less offensive than a jovial one.

‘Food porn’ is nothing new, of course, as Marks & Spencer’s delightful adverts helped introduce the phrase a couple of years ago. It would be just rude not to have a sumptuous image of chocolate sauce drizzling on to a sponge pudding on a pack nowadays.

After all the excitement, what else could we do but go out and buy a big bag of Maoam? The rest of the afternoon was spent in sugary delight as we tore our way through the bumper bag.

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