Disney Food for Families columnist Erin Foster weighs in on Cars 2 Merchandise!
Back on Valentine’s Day, I was lucky enough to attend a D23 member event in New York City in conjunction with the annual Toy Fair. Attendees witnessed the unveiling of the range of toys that would be licensed for the June 24 Cars 2 film release. At the event, Disney Consumer Products Senior Vice President of Global Toys (cool title, eh?), Vince Klaseus, announced that Cars 2 would have more branded toys than any previous Disney/Pixar theatrical release.
Emily Mortimer discusses Cars 2 Legos with Vince Klaseus
Cars demonstrations at the Toy Fair
I enjoyed seeing all the Cars toys out for display that day, and reeeeally enjoyed seeing Sir Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer briefly discuss their roles in the film, but Klaseus’ remarks “about more branded products than ever” didn’t make much of an impression on me. Until I took a trip to Target this week – Cars 2 merchandise was EVERYWHERE – not only toys, but also vitamins,Band-aids, towels, pillows, batteries, wall hangings, party supplies, roller blades, bike helmets, tissues, diapers, clothing, books, and, of course, food.
Here are just a few of the Cars 2 branded food and food-related items I found:
Mac & Cheese
Fruit Snacks
Cars branded cereal
Juice boxes (other flavors also available)
Another brand of juice, also in more flavors
Cheez-Its
Sippy cups
Sandwich keeper
Table protectors
Rice Krispies Treats
I even discovered that Kellogg’s is running a Cars 2 promotion in which you can redeem boxtops for Cars 2 merchandise. More information can be found at http://cars2.kelloggs.com/
Kellogg's Nutri-Grain bars, with promotional tie-in
If you’re feeling like you need more of a home-baked Cars 2 food fix, head on over to the Williams Sonoma website, where you can purchase Cars 2 cookie cutters, pancake molds, or cupcake pans. And while you’re baking, you can wear a Cars 2 apron.
Cookie cutters
Cupcake trays
Pancake molds
Apron
So what do you think folks? Will you be drinking Cars 2 juice in a Cars 2 cup while snacking on a Cars 2 cupcake?
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I actually bought the Cars 2 Easy Mac. 😛 My son refuses to eat it tho. Just noticed all the other items in Target yesterday and I will admit it was a bit of overkill to me. The movie was fun, but I feel like the marketing machine is in overdrive lately. (no pun intended) 😉
I want the cars apron! My younger brother wants everything, except for the baby toys (he’s 11).
Those cupcakes are adorable, but any non professional cake decorator could NEVER make them look that good. I’d be lucky to even get them out of the pan in one piece…
I usually buy Nutri-Gran bars, but having Cars characters on them makes it that much more awesome.
You have all of the food-related merchandise down for Cars, and Kellogg’s really hit the jackpot getting the rights for advertisement.
Working in a top-secret retail chain I pulled all the Cars two perishables before the street date so it was interesting to see what advertising has done. (Tip: Zanna mentioned the chain)
While the first Cars movie didn’t do that well at the box office–the amount of money Disney makes from the Cars merch is enormous. I’m guessing that the merch sales and licensing agreements have already paid for Cars 2!
Embarrassingly, I have bought the fruit snacks, the cereal, and the easy mac…….
Last week I spotted a Lightening McQueen birthday cake (bright red, actually shaped like a car!!!) in our local Tesco supermarket and ‘suggested’ that my partner might want to buy it next month for my birthday…I’m going to be 36…don’t see why I shouldn’t have lots of sugar and artificial food colouring on my birthday!!?
I will be interested to see what catches my kids’ eyes (they are 7 and 9). When they were young, they LOVED the first Cars movie. But after about a year, they decided it was “too baby” for them and moved on.
But my 7 year old is very excited about Cars 2, which tells me that he probably never really thought it was too babyish for him, but probably heard someone at school say something along those lines. He is a mac & cheese fanatic, so I suspect some of that Easy Mac will make its way into the pantry. 🙂 Probably also the Rice Krispies Treats, Cheez Its and possibly the cereal. We have the W-S Star Wars pancake molds and cookie cutters, so there’s also a possibility the Cars version will invade our kitchen as well.
Sigh. Those marketing geniuses sure know how to get you to part with your money!
We bought the Cars 2 cereal, Cheeze-its, Juicy Juice(which we have got 5 of the 9 characters/flavors) Nutri grain, and sippy cup. They all taste better(in my mind) and get me even more excited for the movie.
My home has already been over taken with Cars 2 foods. My daughters insisted the Cars shaped Mac n cheese has to be better than the “regular” noodles. There was even a heated argument about which flavor Cars juice to buy. I tried to make them understand that even though purple is their favorite color car, they don’t like grape juice and we’d have to get Lightning McQueen instead 🙂
Where did you get the cupcake pans/molds??