…but when my daughter insisted that we try a “Wonka” candy today (we haven’t read the book aloud, but I’ve given her the bare outlines of the story, as the commercials for the Burton-Depp version have caught her eye), it was painfully, hopelessly ordinary. Basically a giant Pez: chalk with sugar and coloring.
I know there’s been a “Wonka” brand around for a while, but I think it does take a peculiarly soulless marketing sensibility to say, “Hey, let’s buy the license to Wonka and just put out some ordinary candy shit!”
In the real world, Ficklegruber bought out Wonka.
Wonka’s Nerds are pretty cool. You get two flavors with every pack!
http://www.oldtimecandy.com/images/candypix-original/nerds.jpg
I used to like the Everlasting Gobstoppers. When I was a little kid, they were huge jawbreakers that came two to a cellophane pack at the corner store. Then they made them smaller and packaged them in boxes of a couple dozen. They changed colors and flavors several times on the way…
But I was sorely disappointed that the overall Wonka brand did not live up to the promise…