You Can Now Eat Like An Iron Chef America!
In one of the more interesting licensing deals, Scripps (parent company of The Food Network) has embarked on creating significantly higher value for its franchise TV shows, like Iron Chef America, by creating a licensing platform for companies to build product lines behind these famous TV shows, not personalities. This divergence from the rest of the market-place who is obsessed with celebrities is interesting, not unique, but scratch-your-head interesting. It would seem that the powers at Food Network are trying to have it both ways. On one-hand, they have built a huge business by hiring/booking and promoting some of the biggest celebrity chefs in the world: Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, Emeril Lagasse, Guy Fieri, Giada De Laurentiis, Rachael Ray, and Paula Deen. Yet, on the other hand, they signed a license deal with Premier Meat Packers who will carry a sub-license of Iron Chef America products called A’ La Cuisine, which is a “home meal kit inspired by the Food Network’s esteemed Iron Chef America series.”
…Really? I can’t remember the last time I watched a show’s name cook something savory, sweet and delicious? Isn’t Food Network speaking out of both sides of their mouth? It’s the Celebrity chefs that they have hired/booked to do cooking demonstrations of the most elegant meals that draw fans in throngs to watch Iron Chef America; yet, they fail to mention one celebrity chef that Premier Meat Packing hired/booked to be the spokesperson for their licensed Dinner in a box. Wonder if it was their decision or the decision of the celebrity chef and their agent/manager that they hired to be their brand stewards to decide that this type of meal although touted as Iron Chef America quality, might just not be and they all decided not to endorse or associate their celebrity to being hired/booked to be the spokesperson of this new licensed branded dinner.
Now this meal that can “feed a family of four in 12 minutes” sounds like a great quick and easy way to get something hardy on the table and even give Rachael Ray a run for her money in 30 minutes or less, but an Iron Chef America quality meal in 12 minutes, come on. I guess if that is the case, Food Network is going to lose a lot of viewers because once the audience invests their 12 minutes into an hour long show and has nothing Alton Brown or the Chairman are ready to “plate”, this might be thought about again. Sometimes licensing is a bonanza and sometimes it just gets Chopped!
