#150 Good & Plenty

#150 Good & Plenty
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This piece is from the Amperbr& series featuring brands with ampersands.

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Can you hear this in black & white?

Remem­ber that jin­gle? If so, you most like­ly watched the com­mer­cial on a black & white TV, maybe even with rab­bit ears.

The jin­gle was writ­ten by adver­tis­ing exec­u­tive Bernard Russ Alben & the pub­lic loved it. (I won­der why he did­n’t pen the last line as “Don’t know any oth­er can­dy, that tastes so swell!” as that slang was the cat’s pj’s back then.) 

This will bring back mem­o­ries to some of you, & show oth­ers what hand-​drawn ani­ma­tion in a con­tem­po­rary style was back in the mid­dle of last century:

October 24th is National Good & Plenty Day—
celebrating the oldest brand of candy in America

Good & Plen­ty is the old­est brand­ed can­dy in the Unit­ed States, first pro­duced by the Quak­er City Con­fec­tion Com­pa­ny in Philadel­phia in 1893. Choo Choo Char­lie appeared in adver­tise­ments start­ing in1950. Appar­ent­ly he used licorice in place of coal (they’re both black, after­all) to run his train. 

Good & Plen­ty has been made by Her­shey since 1996 & the fla­vor has­n’t changed one bit (although the pack­ag­ing & even one impor­tant detail in the name has — keep read­ing). Facts about Good & Plen­ty are fea­tured on their web­site at her​shey​land​.com

Good & Plen­ty is still very pop­u­lar, & is a sta­ple in movie the­aters along with Junior Mints, Sug­ar Babies, Jujyfruits & Milk Duds. It’s always been one of my favorite can­dies for two rea­sons: I like the fla­vor of the crisp out­er shell, a bit spicy, break­ing through to the chewy cen­ter of black licorice. But that’s just half of what I like about Good & Plenty. 

Oldest candy, newest colors

I love the styl­ish col­ors of Good & Plen­ty (the orig­i­nal pack­ag­ing, any­way). The com­bi­na­tion of pink, black & white has always been a favorite col­or scheme of mine. (I wear a pink tie with a black suit when I dress up, but usu­al­ly it’s just a pink tank top & black shorts. For those of you who know I’m a nud­ist, maybe just a black fedo­ra with a pink band.) The box­es used to be only pink, black & white. The can­dies are pink & white (as shown in the Amper­Art poster), with a black licorice cen­ter that’s vis­i­ble only after you’ve munched through the thin can­dy shell. 

Although invent­ed 60 – 70 years pri­or, Good & Plen­ty’s col­ors were spot-​on con­tem­po­rary dur­ing the 1950s and ear­ly 60s. Remem­ber when homes, fash­ion & adver­tise­ments were com­bi­na­tions of pink, black, white & gray back then? (Not TV ads, though — black & white only, no pink inside those tubes.) 

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The poo­dle skirt has an interesing his­to­ry. Read it here.

Notice anything different?

Sev­er­al decades ago Good & Plen­ty added pur­ple to the pack­age & took out the black. It’s more col­or­ful and appeal­ing to most peo­ple I sup­pose, but I miss the pink/​black/​white pack­age. (Not to men­tion pur­ple & brown are my least favorite col­ors — per­haps why I hate peanut but­ter & jel­ly?) For­tu­nate­ly when Good & Plen­ty changed the pack­ag­ing they did not change the con­tents. The can­dy is still pink & white shells & black licorice center.

But that’s not all. Com­pare these old & new pack­ages. Can you spot the major dif­fer­ence? Hint: it’s a pro­gres­sive change in brand­ing that made Amper­Art #150 Good & Plen­ty possible.

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I’m sure you amper­sand fans noticed that not only did the type­style change (which just hap­pened to be a very fit­ting & pop­u­lar mid-​century Bodoni to com­ple­ment the mid-​century col­or scheme), but the name changed as well, at least in its typog­ra­phy: the “and” was replaced with our favorite char­ac­ter. (& that’s what makes this Amper­Art edi­tion pos­si­ble.) I think the amper­sand in the name is bril­liant and pro­gres­sive, so in tune with today’s brand­ing & com­mu­ni­ca­tion. (How­ev­er, it can’t be typed out exact­ly in a URL like the old name could.*) The new let­ter­ing is also per­fect, as the round­ness com­ple­ments the shape of the can­dy itself. The new brand design­ers could have (& maybe tried) turn­ing those two Os into cross-​sections of the can­dy, mak­ing the inside (the “counter” in type lin­go) black for the licorice & coat­ing the out­side (the main O shapes) in pink & white. But I’m glad they set­tled on exact­ly what it is today. Very licorice, very friend­ly (in a cute way, even) & very contemporary.

How­ev­er, I still hate the pur­ple, so this is what I would do:

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RIP BLACKWOLF, AMOS & ANDY, BRIQUETTE, JEEPERS CREEPERS, & ALL MY FRIENDS’ & NEIGHBORS’ BLACK CATS WHO WILL BE CELEBRATING NATIONAL BLACK CAT DAY IN HALLOWEEN HEAVEN

Iterations later…

Here’s some­thing inter­est­ing & per­plex­ing. There’s anoth­er can­dy sim­i­lar to Good & Plen­ty but with many col­ors & many fla­vors. So far, so good. But why did they devi­ate from the orig­i­nal “and” in “Good and Plen­ty,” instead using the con­trac­tion ” ‘n “? Even when the pack­ag­ing was updat­ed to match the new Good & Plen­ty look, the ” ‘n ” was retained. Only lat­er on did the con­junc­tion change, log­i­cal­ly, to an ampersand. 

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From a logo design­er’s per­spec­tive, it’s a pleas­ant sur­prise when things just fit. Some­times it’s pure coin­ci­dence, as in the words Plen­ty & Fruity: they’re both the same num­ber of let­ters, and more serendip­i­tous­ly, they both end in “y” which not only allows the last let­ter to fit nice­ly, but con­tin­ues the unique brand iden­ti­ty of the styl­ized “y.” Also as a design­er I’ll say that they should have left the let­ters sol­id, not high­light­ed in the lat­est ver­sion. The can­dies yes, the logo no. But that’s a moot point any­way, as you’ll read in the last line below.

About Good & Fruity (or Good ‘n Fruity or Good and Fruity) from Wikipedia:

Good & Fruity is a mul­ti­col­ored, multi-​flavor can­dy with a sim­i­lar shape to Good & Plen­ty.^[1] Unlike Good & Plen­ty, Good & Fruity con­tains red licorice. The can­dy was pro­duced by The Her­shey Com­pa­ny.

Before 1992, all Good & Fruity can­dies con­tained the same-​flavored red gum­my cen­ter, rely­ing upon the hard can­dy shell to pro­vide the dif­fer­ent fla­vor accord­ing to col­or. Around 1992, the for­mu­la was changed, and the can­dies’ inte­ri­ors became color- and flavor-​coördinated with the out­er shell to give the can­dy a “fruiti­er” taste.

Good & Fruity was out of pro­duc­tion for an extend­ed peri­od, but returned to the Her­shey Foods line­up in March 2008. The third recipe was mod­i­fied from the orig­i­nal and 1992 ver­sions: the more recent recipe was clos­er to a jel­ly bean and does not con­tain red licorice. The name was slight­ly changed, orig­i­nal­ly “Good ‘n Fruity,” with the new name con­tain­ing an amper­sand instead of “n.” The can­dy also con­tained the fol­low­ing fla­vors: cher­ry, orange, lemon, lime, and blue rasp­ber­ry.

—Wikipedia

I’d like to try these “new & improved” fruity fla­vors, but unfor­tu­nate­ly they’ll be hard & stale by now. In mid-​2018, the can­dy went out of pro­duc­tion again. But at least they final­ly got the amper­sand in the logo where it right­ful­ly belongs.

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RIP BLACKWOLF, AMOS & ANDY, BRIQUETTE, JEEPERS CREEPERS, & ALL MY FRIENDS’ & NEIGHBORS’ BLACK CATS WHO WILL BE CELEBRATING NATIONAL BLACK CAT DAY IN HALLOWEEN HEAVEN

Just the black part

This sec­tion is all about black licorice. Because I love black licorice. That’s such a per­fect fla­vor to pair with the out­er can­dy shell in Good & Plen­ty, & you taste the black licorice only after break­ing through the spicy fla­vor of the pink & white shells. 

Have you ever tast­ed real licorice? Salt­ed licorice? Dou­ble salt­ed licorice? Read a few para­graphs down. 

There’s anoth­er can­dy that is sim­i­lar to Good & Plen­ty — the long col­or­ful pieces in licorice bridge mix. That & scotch kiss­es (marsh­mal­low & caramel) were my favorites at the Sears can­dy & nut counter. Ah, the good old days with the aro­ma of fresh pop­corn in that sec­tion of the ubiq­ui­tous depart­ment store.

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That licorice bridge mix (as opposed to your stan­dard choco­late bridge mix) was a sea of licorice pastilles — long pas­tel can­dies sim­i­lar to Good & Plen­ty, licorice dots, and col­or­ful­ly sprin­kled licorice pieces, all in a bin where the counter per­son scooped out how­ev­er much you want­ed. Fun & delicious!

Love licorice?

For the die-​hard licorice con­noiseur, there’s a store that sells every type of licorice from every coun­try — the British spell it “liquorice” — with a name that says it all: Licorice Inter­na­tion­al with a retail shop in Lin­coln, Nebras­ka. That would entice me to take a road trip, stop­ping at old-​fashioned din­ers along the way. Licorice Inter­na­tion­al has a won­der­ful online store, too, with lots of facts about licorice. You can select licorice by coun­try, by type, & by brand. There’s a good selec­tion of sam­plers, too. Good ol’ Good & Plen­ty is includ­ed in the Amer­i­can Favorites Sampler.

If you love licorice — & you’re adven­tur­ous — & you like salt — try some salt­ed or even dou­ble salt­ed (Dubbel Zout) licorice. It’s main­ly from Hol­land. Licorice Inter­na­tion­al has a Salty Sam­pler. You can also find salt­ed licorice in local can­dy stores and gourmet mar­kets, but I real­ly like this web­site with all its cat­e­gories and infor­ma­tion. There are 57 vari­eties of licorice from Hol­land alone! 

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RIP BLACKWOLF, AMOS & ANDY, BRIQUETTE, JEEPERS CREEPERS, & ALL MY FRIENDS’ & NEIGHBORS’ BLACK CATS WHO WILL BE CELEBRATING NATIONAL BLACK CAT DAY IN HALLOWEEN HEAVEN

More good facts & plenty of them

I found a blog that is chock full of infor­ma­tion about can­dy, can­dy & more can­dy! There’s a page about Good & Plen­ty that would make this arti­cle three times as long, so just go to that page and enjoy read­ing how Good & Plen­ty used to taste dif­fer­ent (what does­n’t? — although I still think it tastes pret­ty good); how you can get Good & Plen­ty straight from the fac­to­ry where it’s fresh­er & soft­er; also how tri­als went with oth­er fla­vors such as Good & Minty (it did­n’t stay on the mar­ket long). For plen­ty of good read­ing about can­dy in gen­er­al, their home page is can​dy​blog​.net.

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RIP BLACKWOLF, AMOS & ANDY, BRIQUETTE, JEEPERS CREEPERS, & ALL MY FRIENDS’ & NEIGHBORS’ BLACK CATS WHO WILL BE CELEBRATING NATIONAL BLACK CAT DAY IN HALLOWEEN HEAVEN

I’m hoping to get some good, & plenty of, comments about licorice, mid-​century-​modern, or Choo Choo Charlie.

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RIP BLACKWOLF, AMOS & ANDY, BRIQUETTE, JEEPERS CREEPERS, & ALL MY FRIENDS’ & NEIGHBORS’ BLACK CATS WHO WILL BE CELEBRATING NATIONAL BLACK CAT DAY IN HALLOWEEN HEAVEN

Happy Good & Plenty Day

Vis­it this blog post for lots of info about Nation­al Good & Plen­ty Day.

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RIP BLACKWOLF, AMOS & ANDY, BRIQUETTE, JEEPERS CREEPERS, & ALL MY FRIENDS’ & NEIGHBORS’ BLACK CATS WHO WILL BE CELEBRATING NATIONAL BLACK CAT DAY IN HALLOWEEN HEAVEN

Have a good Halloween & score plenty of treats.

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RIP BLACKWOLF, AMOS & ANDY, BRIQUETTE, JEEPERS CREEPERS, & ALL MY FRIENDS’ & NEIGHBORS’ BLACK CATS WHO WILL BE CELEBRATING NATIONAL BLACK CAT DAY IN HALLOWEEN HEAVEN

ABOUT THIS SPECIAL AMPERART SERIES FEATURING BRANDS WITH AMPERSANDS

Amperbr&

Amper­br& (pro­nounced “amper­brand” — but you got that, did­n’t you?) is a spe­cial series with­in the Amper­Art col­lec­tion, fea­tur­ing com­pa­ny & prod­uct names which con­tain the word “and”; or a con­trac­tion such as “ ‘n ”; or the amper­sand itself. In each case, the con­junc­tion is replaced by an amper­sand which is set or styl­ized in the pri­ma­ry type­face of the brand’s logo. The Amperbr& series includes:
#89 Guns & Ros­es
#90 Arm & Ham­mer
#124 Shake & Bake
#127 Slip & Slide
#150 Good & Plen­ty
Search Amper­br& for others.

The focal point of each Amper­br& poster is the amper­sand, & obvi­ous­ly only brands are fea­tured that con­tain “&” or “and” or the con­trac­tion “n” (there are sur­pris­ing­ly many). Promi­nent col­ors & shapes of each brand’s logo & trade dress are fea­tured in each piece. In #90 Arm & Ham­mer, for exam­ple, the amper­sand is an exact repro­duc­tion of the amper­sand in the logo­type, at the same angle. The burst is radi­at­ing at var­i­ous strengths as well, same as the pack­age. (That was an inter­est­ing dis­cov­ery.) Final­ly, the bor­der dis­plays the red, blue & flesh (the arm) as on the logo &pack­ag­ing. The col­ors are sam­pled & matched to the brand’s palette.

Orig­i­nal­ly, the con­cept was to con­tain the brand ele­ments with­in a square, with the name of the brand set in a non­de­script font top & bot­tom, as such:

But you, my dear amper­sand fan, are intel­li­gent & sophis­ti­cat­ed. No need to insult you by spelling out what brand each image rep­re­sents. (How­ev­er, if you are unfa­mil­iar with the brand, it’s in the title of the poster.) I decid­ed to forego the brand’s name & uti­lize the entire can­vas for the star of the show, the ampersand.

Logos have been my pas­sion since I was a kid, so this series is very spe­cial to me. My first logo was a star with a cir­cle drawn around it. It was for an imag­i­nary com­pa­ny called Cir­cle Star. I have no idea how I came up with that name nor what the “com­pa­ny” did. But that was my first logo, prob­a­bly before I even heard the term. (“Cor­po­rate iden­ti­ty” entered my vocab­u­lary not too much lat­er. Today it’s called “brand iden­ti­ty” which actu­al­ly goes beyond just the logo. That hap­pens to be my forte.)

I am very excit­ed about the Amper­br& series. Expect a new piece every so often with­in the Amper­Art series of “Ordi­nary Phras­es & Amper­sands Extraordinaire.”

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RIP BLACKWOLF, AMOS & ANDY, BRIQUETTE, JEEPERS CREEPERS, & ALL MY FRIENDS’ & NEIGHBORS’ BLACK CATS WHO WILL BE CELEBRATING NATIONAL BLACK CAT DAY IN HALLOWEEN HEAVEN

Chaz DeS­i­mone is the cre­ator of Amper­Art and own­er of Des­i­mone Design. He was adding ser­ifs to let­ters when he was just a lit­tle brat scrib­bling on walls. Now he’s a big brat and his entire career is design, so long as each project requires the most sophis­ti­cat­ed, log­i­cal, cap­ti­vat­ing results. Con­tact him at chaz@​desimonedesign.​com to dis­cuss your project, pick his brain, or just talk shop.