The snack that smiles back

Anyone that has grown up in the past 40 years will recall his or her memories of Pepperidge Farm’s Goldfish. They are the small, cheesy baked snack crackers cut into the shape of goldfish. Within the past decade, they’ve added “smiles” to the crackers and even trademarked the tagline “The snack that smiles back! Goldfish!”. Turning a blind eye to the whole concept of eating food that smiles, Goldfish has a following that rivals almost any candy bar or bubble gum.

So what is this magic that makes Goldfish so appealing? Part of it is the ingredients. Although a far cry from the healthier Cheerios cereal, Goldfish offer than tactile hand holding experience that young children need. They’re baked and packed with enough cheese flavoring to make you forget you’re eating anything that has flour in it. It’s easy to lay a dozen of these crackers onto a highchair tray and let the kids go wild. It also easy for an adult to devour twenty crackers at one sitting before thinking they’ve overeaten.

Goldfish offer the great crunch that potato chips and pretzels typically provide but with much less salt. They don’t even compare when used in soups in place of oyster crackers or saltines. The question remains: Why are these damn crackers so popular? On a vanity level, they are the most attractive crackers on the market. The form factor puts Ritz, Club, and Wheat Thins to shame. The colored crackers even offer goldfish in purple and green varieties. Their creepy, yet, charming smile can be seen on about 1/3 of each cracker per bag.

While its never a good idea to assume that anything is beloved by all, we’d love to hear from those that admire or loathe Goldfish crackers. Are you a Goldfish cracker hater or lover?

Photo: dyanna

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