Elle UK Editor-in-Chief Talks Size Zero Model Issue
Elle UK Editor-in-chief Lorraine Candy talked about the size zero issue with ITN News. When asked if the fashion industry has a dangerous influence on young girls, Lorraine Candy said no. She said, "I don't think so at all. I think you've got to be really careful about anorexia and the size zero debate. Anorexia is a mental illness. It's not something that's provoked by fashion magazines. It's something that's very personal and individual to the person. I think that it's difficult to blur that line between saying all skinny models are going to make these women anorexic. That's wrong and that's not factually correct."
Lorraine Candy also said there have always been curvy models on the runway. She gave Cindy Crawford as an example of a curvy model. She also said, "There's always been curvy models on the catwalk. There's always been girls from Cindy Crawford onwards who've been curvy and busty. But the focus has always been on the one or two who are naturally very thin."
Lorraine Candy is being quite disingenuous here. She knows full well how fashion models stay thin. Now that many models are coming forward to tell stories of how they were told to starve themselves if they wanted to work, it's a ludicrous point of view. As for the idea that emaciated models and unreasonable depictions of women in media don't help contribute to anorexia, we suggest she talk to any psychologist who treats eating disorders. Take a look:
Singer and actress Ashlee Simpson-Wentz joined The Hershey Company in New York, to introduce the new Pieces Candies line. The new Candies line provides bite-sized versions of Reese's, York, Almond Joy and Hershey's Special Dark.
Ashlee Simpson said, "I have always loved Reese's Pieces Candy and was excited to learn that bite-sized versions of York, Almond Joy and Hershey's Special Dark would be making their Pieces Candies debut. With my busy schedule, I am constantly on the go and Pieces Candies are great for enjoying anytime."
Ashlee Simpson helping out with the Pieces Candies will remind many of Ashlee's hit "Pieces of Me."
This year Sweethearts will feature new fruity flavors and bright colors, printed with modern sayings. The company came up with some new sayings through an online contest. "Tweet Me" and "Text Me" are a couple of Sweethearts new candy heart phrases. The company has also set up a Twitter account, @my_sweethearts.
"Sweethearts have long been America's favorite Valentine's Day candy for sharing a sweet sentiment with loved ones," said Jackie Hague, vice president of marketing at the New England Confectionery Company. "The new tastier flavors, vibrant colors and modern expressions will ensure that Sweethearts continue to delight people of all ages and help them say something sweet to those they care about."
Last summer, to modernize the classic sayings, Sweethearts discarded all previous expressions and held an online consumer contest that asked Americans what they wanted to see on their Sweethearts. Favorite sayings that made their debut in years past, such as "Fax Me" and "Email Me," will now be replaced with phrases for new technologies including "Tweet Me" and "Text Me."
"It's great that America chose 'Tweet Me' to be a new Sweethearts saying," said Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, Inc. "Twitter is a new way to communicate in 140 characters or less and Sweethearts have been helping people communicate using short phrases for decades."
The complete list of the top 10 new phrases combines both contemporary expressions ("Tweet Me," "Text Me," "You Rock," "Soul Mate," "Love Bug" and "Me + You") and the return of classic expressions ("Puppy Love," "Sweet Love," "Sweat Pea" and "Love Me").
5% of Select Saks Fifth Avenue Treats to Benefit St. Jude's
Saks has launched the Saks Fifth Avenue Collection food program to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Now through December 24th, 5% of the purchase price of select Saks Fifth Avenue Collection treats and New York Candy Company sweets -- identified by a green St. Jude sticker -- will be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. All items are available in Saks Fifth Avenue stores nationwide and on saks.com and range in price from $13.50 to $55.50.
A Michigan dentist's office is offering to buy candy back from kids on Monday. Kids can trade in some of the candy they collected while trick-or-treating for cash at a rate of $1 per pound. A local store here on WNDU says the collected candy will be sent overseas to the troops. The dentist says he is not out to ruin Halloween and says he hands out candy himself. Take a look:
Paid Content reports that DailyCandy is entering the world of ecommerce with a new website called Swirl. Swirl is a new online sample sale site which is promising up to 80% off designer fashions.
The move puts DailyCandy into competition with upstart online private sale websites like Gilt.com, RueLaLa and HauteLook. The sites offer short duration members-only sales of fashion items. Saks recently tested a short 36-hour private sales event of its own as it considering competing with these online stores dubbed flash discounters.
The New York Times has a very interesting -- some might prefer the term disturbing -- feature on Paul Rudnick, an adult male who has essentially lived on candy his entire life. He nibbles a bit on plain bagels and Cheerios, but generally he only eats candy. This has gone on since he was a child. He is thin and in good health. Rudnick is a humorist and playwright, but he says he's not joking about his odd diet.
....It is possible, it seems, to live on candy.
Mr. Rudnick is the living proof. At 51, 5-foot-10 and an enviably lean 150 pounds, Mr. Rudnick does not square with the inevitable mental image of a man who has barely touched a vegetable other than candy corn in nearly a half-century. Apparently, one can not only live on a dessert island, but can also do it happily and long.
"People always assume I'm lying," said Mr. Rudnick earlier this month in his West Village apartment packed from ceiling to floor with Gothic ornamentation. "They always say: 'That can't be true. You'd be dead. Or huge.'"
But as Mr. Rudnick insisted (as he does in I Shudder, a collection of short pieces ranging from recollections to screeds), he is not dissembling or diseased. "There was never a time when I was not refined-sugar-centric," he said flatly. "I was always appalled by almost all other foods; I could not understand why anyone wanted them. I did not like the taste, the smell, the concept."
At the age of 6 he was even sent to a psychiatrist, who told his parents their son was otherwise well-adjusted, and to let him eat what he wanted and just see what happened.
"His advice was, basically, 'Just let it go, otherwise, you will have to tie him down, force feed him, and shield your face from the projectile vomit,'" he recalled. "I was so dead certain about it, so completely unwilling to entertain any options that they basically had no choice."
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"People imagine that I eat an entire chocolate cake for dinner," he said. "They think of Willy Wonka-style gluttony, but that's their fantasy."
We've heard of picky eaters, but we've never heard of one who never grew out of it by adulthood to the point where they could at least eat some protein and vegetables without gagging.
Paul eats nuts regularly, so he's getting some protein that way, we suppose. But what about vitamin deficiencies? Wouldn't he have scurvy if he really never ate any citrus or vitamin C? Of course all the cereals are fortified, so perhaps he gets his vitamins that way -- and he does get some iron and Vitamin C from the Raisinets.
Paul doesn't even eat gourmet candy. He just scarfs down elephant peanuts, Yodels, Peeps, Hostess Snowballs and Hostess Cupcakes. It's all junk food -- some might argue that those items aren't real food at all. He'll probably live to be 120 just to spite all the doctors and nutritionists.
You can read a list of Paul's favorite candies here.
Consumers Reaching for the Good Stuff This Halloween
Nielson, the company that compiles TV ratings, has released a report about consumer Halloween candy trends. First off, everyone buys candy at the last minute. And this year people are going for the name brand candy, not the generic brands. Here are the highlights from the report about Americans' candy buying habits:
* Consumers buy less store brand or private label candy for Halloween, with
store brand candy losing share during the Halloween season. Store brand candy
holds a larger share on an annual basis (8.1 percent) than it does in the weeks
leading up to and including Halloween (5.6 percent). The trend is the same for
both chocolate and non-chocolate candy segments.
* Approximately $1.9 billion or 598 million pounds of candy is sold during the
Halloween season.
* Halloween is the biggest season for chocolate candy, with nearly 90 million
pounds of chocolate candy sold during Halloween week. By comparison, nearly 65
million pounds of chocolate candy is sold during the week leading up to Easter
and only 48 million pounds of chocolate candy is sold during Valentine's week.
* Consumers tend to wait until the last minute to purchase Halloween candy,
either procrastinating or hoping for a better deal. The biggest candy buying
days of the Halloween season are the Sunday before the holiday and on Halloween
day.
"Without a doubt, consumers continue to turn to store brands in a down economy,"
said Todd Hale, senior vice president, Consumer & Shopper Insights, The Nielsen
Company. "What we see with Halloween candy sales, however, is a sign that
consumers may be 'splurging' with brand name products for the holiday or simply
taking advantage of brand name promotions and price reductions. Candy
manufacturers invest a great deal of marketing dollars to build brand equity in
candy and private label candy has not been able to overcome that investment and
grab significant share."
That's a pretty interesting finding. We'd think that in a recession, people might tend to go to a cheaper house brand. Apparently everyone is buying those little Snickers, Hershey's and Kit Kat bars with an eye towards having something tasty in the house in between trick or treaters. It's a sound strategy.
A Kiss blend of M&M's has been launched to promote the mymms.com service and the Kiss rock band. The My M&M's Kiss Blend features four customized packages that includes the iconic faces of band members Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer. The candy will be available starting October 6th at Walmart locations nationwide, coinciding with the launch of Kiss' new album, Sonic Boom.
"KISS has always been and will continue to be all about the fans," said Paul Stanley of KISS. "We couldn't resist the chance to be the first band to grace the iconic M&M'S candies and continue to spread the KISS empire!"
Candylicious to Open World's Largest Candy Store in The Dubai Mall
Dubai-based Candylicious is opening
the world's largest candy store in The Dubai Mall. The Gulf region is known for loving sweets and Candylicious wants to be the top destination for candy lovers.
Candylicious, which initially opens in one of the world's largest shopping centers, The Dubai Mall, is also planning a second store in Singapore early next year, Sunaina Gill, director of Retail Is Detail, a Singaporean family business in Dubai told Reuters on Wednesday.
"We are planning 10-15 stores in the Gulf Arab region over the next 3-5 years, with additional stores to open in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the next 12 months," said Gill.
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In addition to its sweets, the 10,000 square foot store features a huge 10-meter singing chocolate tree decorated with lollipops.
Customers will not need to necessarily have venture into the store to taste the candy. The store will also employ "Candylicious Junior," a car that will circle the mall.
Good grief. There will be no leaving The Dubai Mall without buying some candy. If you manage to avoid temptation at the candy emporium, just when your guard is down the Candylicous Junior car will sneak up on you and tempt you once again.
This enormous gummy bear will probably be a popular novelty gift. It is a 5-lb gummy bear that is the equivalent of 1,400 regular sized gummy bears. It contains 12,600 calories. Hopefully, people won't try to eat a whole one of these in one sitting.
The World's Largest Gummy Bear is the lion of the candy world. There is no candy more magnificent or more powerful. This five-pound beast is the equivalent of 1,400 regular sized gummy bears and packs a whopping 12,600 calories.
Its monstrous size is only matched by its enormous taste. The World's Largest Gummy Bear tastes just as delicious as its pint-sized counterpart.
Available in several flavors: blue raspberry, red cherry, and green apple. Hand-made in the USA.
The ridiculously large gummy bears are currently being sold here for $29.95 by Vat19.
Candyship.com also sells some giant gummy bears that cost $40 as well as some not quite as giant gummi bears on a stick for $14.95.
We aren't sure how these giant gummi bears taste. The best tasting gummi bears have always been the regular-sized Gummi Bears imported from Germany and made by Haribo.
Hershey's Chocolate World Celebrates 75 Millionth Visitor
Lucky Sharon O'Donnell was designated the 75 millionth visitor to the Hershey's Great American Chocolate Tour ride. As the 75 millionth visitor, Sharon received a prize pack valued at over $1,500, which included a year's worth of Hershey's candy, a five pound Hershey's milk chocolate bar and tickets to various Hershey's Chocolate World attractions. Hershey's Chocolate World is also celebrating the milestone by hosting a September celebration September. A "75 Million Visitor Celebration Sweet Savings" flyer is available on the Hershey's Chocolate World website, which contains September promotions and discounts.
Spangler candy had a gifting suite at the Teen Choice Awards. Actress Debby Ryan, who played Bailey Picket on the Disney Channel's Suite Life on Deck on the Disney Channel, stopped by to try a new Mango-flavored Dum Dum Pop.
You can see a complete list of the Teen Choice Award winners here.
Some very excited children in San Francisco were lucky enough to get to play on a life-sized version of Candy Land. Lombard Street in San Francisco was turned into a life-size version of the board game to celebrate Candy Land's 60th birthday. Take a look:
Anderson Cooper Grills Candy Spelling About Mean Letter to Tori
Candy Spelling appeared on Live With Regis and Kelly today to talk about her book. Kelly Ripa told Candy that she really wants her to reconcile with her daughter, Tori, and Candy said she agreed, that she wanted that too. But guest host Anderson Cooper (who is just so fabulous as a host wherever he goes) couldn't take off his journalist's cap and flat out asked her why she wrote a mean letter to Tori on TMZ.com if she wanted to reconcile and did she think that was really going to work? Candy seemed really out of it. And what was she wearing? That flowing sleeveless miniskirt was just not working. At all. Take a look:
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