Executives at Hormel Foods Corporation,
the massive Minnesota-based entity responsible for Spam, attribute
increased Spam sales to people saving money by skipping restaurant
meals and eating more at home. On May 22, Hormel announced increased
second-quarter sales of its pig preserves, helping push up its profits
14 percent. Growing Spam consumption has helped lift Hormel to $1.59
billion in sales for the quarter.
Spam is reaching young and old, rich and
poor, says Hormel’s Swen Neufeldt. “We have significantly increased our
household penetration,” he notes. “I think it’s a lot of folks that are
coming into the brand perhaps for the first time and coming back to the
brand.”
Sure, Spam has old and new fans: some ironic, some
nostalgic, some indiscriminate. There are also those who consider Spam
“emergency food,” appropriate for when you’ve run out of real food or
for stocking a bomb shelter. And there are those who detest and deride
Spam; Spam is an acronym, it is claimed, for “Something Posing As Meat”
or “Spare Parts Animal Meat.”
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Spam is made of the shoulders and legs
of pigs, ground up and mixed together with salt, sugar, water and
sodium nitrite. It’s packed in a gelatinous potato-starch goo, baked
and sealed in cans. Because it’s highly processed, it’s cheap and has
an unlimited shelf life, it became popular as a protein source for
soldiers during World War II; they called it “ham that didn’t pass its
physical.”
Korea, Guam and other territories that got Spammed due to
American occupation have developed a taste for the mutant pork cube,
treating it as a sort of Western delicacy, stir-frying it, stuffing it
in sushi or making it a staple ingredient of “army-base stew.” It’s
purportedly now given as a gift more often than chocolates in South
Korea. In fact, Spam has become an international disaster, contributing
to the world’s increasingly debased cuisine and deteriorating health
due to its high saturated fat and sodium content.
Leading American consumers back down
this dark path is Hormel’s first national advertising campaign for the
brand in several years. In addition to increased poverty, Hormel
credits the recent sales growth to the new campaign, along with new
products like individually packaged “Spam Singles” slices.
Hormel began the new campaign, including print and
television ads, in January. Neufeldt says the campaign was planned in
advance and wasn’t tied to a perceived weakness in the economy. Sweet
timing, nonetheless.
The campaign was created by the advertising agency BBDO
for an undisclosed amount of money—a good guess is $5 million to $10
million—and aims for a mass audience. They’ve tried to capitalize on
Spam’s funniness by creating animated TV spots, radio jingles, a
dashboard widget, games, a museum, a fan club and a wacky Web site
(www.spam.com) that lets you know they get the joke. The new tagline is
“Crazy tasty!”
In the new TV ads, anonymous everyman
stick figures abandon the drudgery of their jobs as symbols of life’s
hazards on traffic signs and come to life to struggle for Spam on the
madcap, violent streets of their brightly colored cartoon town. They
are a plea to the average working guy to think two-dimensionally and
persuade his wife to serve him up a Spamburger when he gets home—or
maybe they’re a plea to the homemaker-on-a-budget who, for $2.62, can
buy a 12-ounce can of Spam to slice, fry up and slap on Wonder Bread to
pass off as a “crazy tasty” dinner for her entire family.
The new radio-friendly Spam songs are an attempt to
co-opt some of the nerd-cool Spam cultural capital that derives from
its Monty Python/computer lingo heritage. That is, Spam is so uncool
that it’s cool enough to ironically celebrate and maybe now even eat.
There’s a deep-voiced Johnny Cash sendup (“You can leave me sittin’ in
a world of hurt/ But Pam don’t take my Spam”), a fake-live rockin’ Van
Halenesque stadium anthem (“The flames are getting higher and higher/
For that tasty meat / I’m gonna fry it up, Spam Spam Spam”) and an old
skool Beastie Boys-style Spam rap (“They call it crazy tasty cause it’s
hella delicious/ If you step into my Spam I don’t get mad, I get
vicious”).
But the center of the Web site is the Big Book of Spam.
Click on a question and the animated pages of a dusty tome flip open
and an ironically authoritative male voice-of-the-book bellows out a
definitive answer from inside an echo chamber filled with otherworldly
Theremin bleeps: Q: What is sodium nitrite? A: “A tiny amount of sodium
nitrite is used. Without it, all pork items would turn gray. It should
really be renamed ‘pinkification!’”
But here’s what the Big Book of Spam won’t tell you:
Sodium nitrite is a chemical preservative used to manufacture dyes and
rubber, as a laboratory corrosion inhibitor, in metal coatings, and in
human and veterinary medicine as an intestinal relaxant or a laxative,
and as an antidote for cyanide poisoning. According to the Food and
Drug Administration and studies in the International Journal of Cancer
and WebMB Medical News, various dangers of “pinkification” include
potential migraines, colon cancer and lung disease. Yeah, crazy tasty!
If you choose to continue, here are a few recipes, reprinted from the Spam Web site.
Spam and Black Beans with Rice
1 cup uncooked long grain rice
1 (12-ounce) can Spam Classic, cubed
½ cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped green bell pepper
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained
1 (15-ounce) can Cajun stewed tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Cook rice according to package directions. In large
skillet, sauté Spam, onion and bell pepper in butter until onion is
softened and Spam is lightly browned. Stir in beans, tomatoes, cumin
and cayenne pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until beans are
thoroughly heated. Serve over hot cooked rice. Makes 6 servings.
Spam Spread Crostini
1 (4.25-ounce) package oven baked Italian toasts or 20 round garlic-flavored melba toasts
2 (3-ounce) cans Spam Spread
½ cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
¹/3 cup sliced ripe olives
2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese
Spread each toast with 2 teaspoons Spam Spread. Top with chopped tomatoes, olives and cheese. Makes 20 servings.
Spam Pizza Pockets
1 (7-ounce) can Spam Classic, cubed
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
½ cup chopped mushrooms
1 (1-pound) loaf frozen bread dough, thawed
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
³/4 cup pizza sauce
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Heat oven to 350 degrees. In skillet,
sauté Spam, green pepper, onion and mushrooms until lightly browned.
Divide bread dough into 6 equal parts. Roll into 6-inch circles. Brush
circles with egg and sprinkle with cheese. Divide Spam mixture among
bread circles. Top with 2 tablespoons pizza sauce. Sprinkle with
Italian seasoning. Fold circles in half. Pinch edges together. Place on
baking sheet. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 6
servings.
This article originally appeared in San Diego City Beat.
