Skip to main content
AmperArt
  • SEE THEM ALL
  • &c.
    • About the ampersand
    • National Ampersand Day
    • Printing & framing AmperArt
    • FAQs & Facts
    • What does &c. mean?
    • Ampermations
    • “chaz sez” design blog
    • Chaz DeSimone’s “real” work
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • SUBSCRIBE

Tag: Good & Plenty

#150 Good & Plenty

October 19, 2021October 23, 2021 Chaz DeSimone 3 Comments
Black, pink & white colors in Good & Plenty candy shapes
#150 Good & Plenty
Click image to view full size or download poster for gallery-​quality printing & framing.
This is a high-​resolution pdf & may take a few minutes to download.
Find printing tips & framing ideas here.

This piece is from the Amperbr& series featuring brands with ampersands.

Can you hear this in black & white?

Once upon a time there was an engineer,
Choo-​Choo Charlie was his name we hear.
He had an engine & it sure was fun,
He used Good & Plenty candy, to make his train run.
Charlie says, “Love my Good & Plenty!“
Charlie says, “Really rings the bell!“
Charlie says, “Love my Good & Plenty!
Don’t know any other candy, that I love so well!”

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.) 

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

Speak­ing of cat’s meow, here’s my senior’s arthri­tis sup­ple­ment for good mobil­i­ty & plen­ty of com­fort. I just sprin­kle it on top of her food & she gob­bles it up like can­dy — her ver­sion of Good & Plen­ty. Proof the col­or scheme is still pop­u­lar today.

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.

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:

If I had my way, I’d styl­ize the new pack­age with retro col­ors. Then frame & hang it among mid-​century-​modern décor.


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. 

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.


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.

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! 

Next time you’re dri­ving across coun­try on Inter­state 80 be sure to stop in the Licorice Inter­na­tion­al shop. You can also see every type of licorice they car­ry on their web­site. But if you can hold off on your licorice crav­ing & could use an inter­est­ing & heart­warm­ing sto­ry right now, vis­it this page about how Licorice Inter­na­tion­al start­ed and flourished…especially the part about the sweet lit­tle lady.


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.


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.

Com­ment here.
Or here.

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.


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

Can’t tell you why Nation­al Good & Plen­ty Day is Octo­ber 24, but this ad from the 1950s or 60s is haunt­ing­ly appro­pri­ate.

Have a good Halloween & score plenty of treats.


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.

Arm & Hammer
Arm & Hammer logo

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:

Arm & Hammer

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.”


Production notes for #150 Good & Plenty:
Original size: 20x30 inches
Program: Adobe Illustrator
Fonts: none; the Amperbr& theme contains only the brand’s ampersand
Ampersand: hand-​drawn, traced from logo
References & images:
Lyrics & lyricist info: popicon.life/a‑look-back-at-choo-choo-charlies-catchy-jingles/
Halloween ad & reference text: www​.old​time​can​dy​.com/​w​a​l​k​-​t​h​e​-​c​a​n​d​y​-​a​i​s​l​e​/​g​o​o​d​-​p​l​e​n​ty/
Reference text: www​.can​dy​blog​.net
Good & Fruity text: Wikipedia
National Good & Plenty Day: facebook.com/HTMGO/posts/national-good-and-plenty-daynational-good-and-plenty-day-is-an-unofficial-food‑h/2622104744516832/
Choo Choo Charlie commercial: YouTube
Licorice: licori​cein​ter​na​tion​al​.com
Poodle skirt article: lit​tlethings​.com/​l​i​f​e​s​t​y​l​e​/​t​h​e​-​p​o​o​d​l​e​-​s​k​irt
Packaging & other images:
her​shey​land​.com
can​dy​wrap​per​mu​se​um​.com/​g​o​o​d​n​f​r​u​i​t​y​.​h​tml
fran​coamer​i​can​gravy​.blogspot​.com/​2​0​1​1​/​1​1​/​l​i​f​e​s​-​l​i​t​t​l​e​-​p​l​e​a​s​u​r​e​s​.​h​tml
pin​ter​est​.com/​r​e​t​r​o​g​i​r​l​69/
can​dy​blog​.net/​b​l​o​g​/​i​t​e​m​/​j​u​j​y​f​r​u​i​t​s​_​j​u​j​u​bes
Fashion & architecture images:
Chair: www.coasterfurniture.com/mid-century-modern-living-room-décor-on-a-budget
House: decoratorist.com/contemporary-house-midcentury-modern-décor/painting-mid-century-modern-home-exterior-paint-colors‑9/
Poodle skirt: www​.whole​sale​hal​loween​cos​tumes​.com/​p​r​o​d​u​c​t​s​/​b​l​a​c​k​-​5​0​s​-​a​d​u​l​t​-​p​o​o​d​l​e​-​s​k​irt
Sears candy counter: www​.spring​field​news​sun​.com/​n​e​w​s​/​l​o​c​a​l​/​l​o​o​k​i​n​g​-​b​a​c​k​-​s​p​r​i​n​g​f​i​e​l​d​-​s​e​a​r​s​-​c​a​n​d​y​-​c​o​u​n​t​e​r​-​s​t​o​c​k​e​d​-​f​o​r​-​c​h​r​i​s​t​m​a​s​/​D​6​I​R​b​8​Z​N​x​7​P​q​B​S​D​n​t​Z​q​K​mN/ & www​.pin​ter​est​.com/​p​i​n​/​3​2​5​5​2​5​8​7​9​3​1​1​3​5​8​5​59/
Bridge mix: sug​ar​wish​.com
Retro TV: time​toast​.com
Note: “&” replaces “and” in most or all text, including quotations, headlines & titles.
You may repost the image & article. Please credit Amper​Art​.com.
To download a full-​size high-​resolution 11x17-​inch poster suitable for printing & framing, click on the image.

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

Visit DesimoneDesign.com

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.

Chaz sez...

*Who banned the ampersand?

Whoever thought up the syntax for Universal Resource Locators (URLs) was 100% coder & 0% copywriter. No foresight whatsoever! We can’t even use common punctuation in a URL except for the hyphen & underscore. It sure makes my AmperArt URLs ugly and hard to understand. 
This is just one of the rants on my blog, chaz sez.
Rants & raves mostly about design, sometimes about the universe.
An occasional bit of useful advice.
Read the blog:
des​i​monedesign​.com/​c​h​a​z​-​sez
Desimone Design
Desimone Design

seek & find

Are you an ampersand fan? Join us here & now!

PEOPLE & PLACES & PRODUCTS & SLOGANS & HOLIDAYS & COLORS & NOSTALGIA &

USE FOR CATEGORIES HEADING

AmperArt posters may be distributed freely both electronically and in print form, for they are intended to be enjoyed by everyone (especially ampersand fans). Please keep the entire poster intact, however, with all logos and text appearing in its original form under the main image. AmperArt is a trademark of Desimone Design. Images and text, on posters and within this site, copyright by Chaz DeSimone. All rights reserved.

SUBSCRIBE — IT’S FUN & FREE

* indicates required
/ ( mm / dd )

The fun & fabulous ampersand

AmperArt is a personal creative project by designer & typographer Chaz DeSimone, featuring the ampersand as fun & fabulous art .

Chaz releases a new AmperArt print every month. For Chaz it's fun & for you it's FREE.

He also writes a relevant story & production notes about the artwork & provides a hi-rez download suitable for gallery-quality printing & framing.

Subscribe & get your Premier Edition AmperArt #1 today—it's fabulous & free!

seek & find

PEOPLE & PLACES & PRODUCTS & SLOGANS & HOLIDAYS & COLORS & NOSTALGIA &

Recent ampersands & articles

  • #187 Each & Every April 27, 2022
  • #144 Meet & Greet March 31, 2022
  • #184 Chocolates & Truffles January 24, 2022
  • #182 Ugly & Tacky December 10, 2021
  • #181 Small Cheer & Great Welcome November 16, 2021
  • #164 Sleek & Sinuous October 27, 2021
  • #150 Good & Plenty October 19, 2021
  • #161 & Per Se & September 7, 2021
  • #170 Long & Scraggly July 30, 2021
  • #179 Land of the Free & Home of the Brave June 30, 2021
  • #175 Remember & Honor May 31, 2021
  • #174 Convicted & Sentenced April 27, 2021
©2011- AmperArt All rights reserved. Site by Desimone Design Theme by Colorlib Powered by WordPress