A Wren Says

Scrolling through my google suggestions, I stopped when I reached a perfume bottle with Parfum de Philly written on it. It was blue, with a geometric sliver top, and it was definitely cake. Nervous that this meant that Google had successfully surveilled me and merged my interests into one ad, I clicked on it and explored.

What I discovered is Philadelphia Cream Cheese campaign, Cheesecake is Everything. This is includes, among the perfume bottle I saw, cowboy boots, a camera, and record player, and a sleek handbag. All of it made from cheesecake. And if you are so inclined, you can make one for yourself using recipes provided on the site, or one their kits if you were one of the lucky few to have snagged it off Amazon.

Speaking of the rationale behind the campaign, Senior Brand Manager, Keenan White, considered it a way to bring back the joy after a last year’s cream cheese shortage. The theme allows consumers to re-engage with the brand and have fun with baking again. The brand also considered the campaign as a response to “Is it Cake” trend, where people decorate cakes in such a realistic way that you can barely tell the difference from the real item. Think of a scene of a leather handbag sitting next to the intricately detailed and fondant covered cheesecake they promoted.

Essentially, this is an article all about cheesecake and cream cheese. But if you dive deeper, it is more about my interest in how they went about promoting this. It is not at all lost on me, as someone who has searched for fragrance and luxury products, that a fake fragrance bottle was used to catch my eye. And each of the goods mimicked with the confection are all objects that are expensive and desire worthy in their own right. They in a sense combined their product with that appeal, which has led multiple outlets to cover it (including this blog, if you can consider it that way).

I can’t say that I have really given this much thought to cream cheese before, but they certainly have my attention now. Well done.

(Image credits: Philadelphia Cream Cheese)