Saturday, October 27, 2007

(Tomato) juiced


Thirsty?
London, ON, April 2006 [Click to embiggen]

Here in the Great White North, they've coined a term to describe grocery products that are of supposedly higher quality than the norm. They call it "Canada Fancy", and it supposedly means that it's especially good. Rumor has it that there's a Canada Extra Fancy as well, but I've never seen the label, and just thinking about it makes my brain hurt. Too many choices when I go shopping, after all.

As I pulled the pocketcam out of my trench coat (no flasher jokes, please) and quickly grabbed this image in the aisle of our neighborhood grocery store, I wondered about the poor products that didn't get to have the "Canada Fancy" label, and a number of very pressing questions immediately came to mind:
  • Did non-Canada Fancy products somehow suck?
  • Would I contract some sort of horrible disease if I consumed unfancy food?
  • Was I a fancier person because I put Canada Fancy-tagged products into my cart?
  • What were they smoking when they came up with this title?
Your turn: Please help me answer these questions. It's been 18 months since I shot this image, and I've been in grocery limbo ever since.

12 comments:

tommie said...

Can't help you on the choices, but this totally sets the scene for a party.

Do it like a wine tasting....all the cans lined up with brown bags around them....have a little paper below for people to guess if they are "fancy" or the just the "plain old sucky ones".

Really just sounds like a marketing ploy to me.

kenju said...

No, no, no and they were smoking something that made them think they would make more money if they added fancy to the title!

Catherine said...

I think it's a marketing ploy. If it was actual tomatoes, or canned fruit, then I might expect the size to be more even or something, but I have no idea what the difference would be with the juice. A blind taste test sounds like a good idea to me.

Smiler said...

Ummm I guessing non-Canada fancy products are for poor losers who don't know any better. Like me over here in Montreal, for instance.

If you consume unfancy food you will automatically become unfancy too which is an incurable condition.

You are not fancier if you put Canada Fancy foods in your cart but you are allowed to briefly bask in a feeling of superiority. But then snap back to reality. We're Canadians. We don't feel superior, remember?

What were they smoking... hm... let's see... that's a tough one. Is it a trick question? I'm going to go with Dried Maple Leaves. It's a Canadian specialty. There's the Fancy kind, but the Extra Fancy stuff is really mindblowing, man.

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

There IS nothing fancier than a Heinz product. Trust me. Heinz is local to me. I know people who work in their R&D office, which is just up the road from me and is in the building where the Tour Manager used to work (back when it was a computer firm).

Stick with Heinz. Thank you for your support.

*grin*

Unique Designs from Zazzle said...

fancy that

Sara said...

Is that like "New and Improved'? I've often wondered how it could be New AND Improved at the same time!

Now what were those questions again???

awareness said...

Canada fancy! Fancy that. I'm surprised Stompin Tom hasn't written a song about it......a side B to his "Bud the Spud" song.

ps. We are fancy....in our nice way.

rashbre said...

We are getting some products tagged with their area of origination now, like milk from Surrey or similar. So in Tesco's I can buy milk, or local milk. I'm not sure if I can tell the difference but I suppose the carbon footprint of one is marginally better (unless the bottle it all in Scotland or something equally bizarre).

I'm not sure how well 'fancy' would work in UK English on food labelling. I suspect there would be some slightly ironic connotations and perhaps capriciousness would win over taste.

There's something to be said for being separated by a common language!

Lori said...

they have that here too...they just call it 'name brands' and they're basically just more expensive!
I love reading your blog...I just don't have the time to get here and comment the way I'd like. You remind me so much of my brother Wayne from Seattle. I don't get to see him often and miss him greatly...

Anonymous said...

I love your photos like this one, they are so unique but inviting!

Anonymous said...

I think it's a hoot! Before truly examining your photo, I hadn't noticed the actual label of "Canada Fancy" -- WOW! It's literally a label.

The ubiquitous Heinz label stood out to me, too as Heinz in the U.S. means - red background, white label with black lettering -- in contrast to the white background/red label and lettering.

This is going to sound silly but my husband would be glad that Heinz is held in such high regard. Since Heinz is from Pittsburgh where my husband hails, that is all he will use (ketchup-wise)!