Snuggie Hits Pop Culture

The other day I was going through my normal routine of watching TV and facebooking when I saw that delightful Snuggie commercial come on. I just had to update my status to let the peeps know that I love the Snuggie commercial. You know what I'm talking about! My office has been gushing over the Snuggie for the last few months and I seriously considered purchasing them for Christmas presents but I just couldn't get it together.

Lo and behold, two days later Snuggie made it to USA Today. I saw the paper while standing in line at the gas station but when my friend emailed me the article, I knew I was destined to blog about it.


Here's the USA Today article:

By Maria Puente, USA TODAY
The Cult of the Snuggie threatens to take over America! Or at least, a substantial number — 4 million — of late-night couch spuds.

The Snuggie, an oversized fleece blanket with sleeves, stars in a ubiquitous TV ad so cheesy it's practically art, and apparently wildly entertaining. The ad shows people wearing Snuggies at a sporting event, cheering and high-fiving each other while dressed … sort of like medieval monks.
"Every once in a while, a product transcends advertising to become part of pop culture," says Scott Boilen, president and CEO of Allstar Products Group of Hawthorne, N.Y., which conceived and markets the China-made Snuggie.

Indeed, Snuggies seem to be everywhere. See them on Facebook — nearly 250 groups, pro and con; one fan club lists 5,999 members. Watch them on YouTube — nearly 300 parody videos posted, including one titled "The Cult of the Snuggie," with 146,000 views as of Tuesday.

Jay Leno makes fun of them: "Lard-ass quilt was the original name! Why not just put your robe on backwards?" Ellen DeGeneres spoofed them, trying one on during her show. Fox News even spotted someone wearing a Snuggie in the crowd at President Obama's inauguration last week.

There are snarky Snuggie-love sites on the Internet, such as SnuggieSightings.com, where fans post photos, videos and "news." Did you know that Snuggie drinking games are sweeping colleges? Students take a swig every time a Snuggie ad airs after midnight.
The Snuggie concept is not new, nor is it the only such product on the market, but the Snuggie proves once again that an attractive price (two for $19.95, plus free book light online and on TV, about $14.99 for one in stores) and clever marketing can take you far in American retailing.
Snuggies went on sale in August, began TV advertising in October and started shipping to retailers in December. Already, 4 million have been sold. But the Internet is crowded with angry testimonials from consumers who say they were overcharged or never got their order or waited much longer than four to six weeks for their Snuggies to arrive.
Boilen promises that all complaints will be resolved. "In our internal consumer-focus groups, Snuggie got the highest rating ever for any product, even (among) people who had to wait," he says.
Or despite other consequences. "I've gained 20 pounds since I started using my Snuggie," jokes Amy Norris of Baltimore, a member of a Snuggie fan club on Facebook. "I got it for a Christmas gift and initially thought it was just funny, but now we fight over it at my house."

USA Today

Snuggie!! I love saying Snuggie! It makes me feel warm and fuzzy. The only thing that would've made that commercial better is if they put a big X over the mark over the lady using the blanket. Maybe they'll put it in the next commercial. Order now!!

Hotpocket Defense

Hi LOST fans! If you've been following my tweets (which you should by the way) you'll know that I spent last Wednesday glued to my TV watching the season premier of LOST. During commercials I tweeted and facebooked my complaints that the first hour was a recaps show. I got totally distressed and emailed ABC because I thought I'd been duped again. But I was wrong. The first hour was recaps but then I was provided with a full two hours of season premiere delight. Sorry ABC, I jumped the gun and complained to you irrationally.

However, I would like to have recaps shows and season premiere clearly defined in the future. ABC said to tune in at 8pm EST for the "season premiere event." I did and I got highly disturbed when I realized i was not seeing new material. It was almost as traumatic as the few times when I could not be at home for LOST and had to record on the DVR. I heart my LG TV with built in DVR but it does this thing where sometimes it stops recording about 20 seconds before the show actually ends. This happened a couple of times when I recorded LOST and I nearly had a panic attack. Does anyone realize how important the last 20 seconds are? I also need to see the next week's previews and it would cut that out too. ABC won't post the night's episode online until about 24hrs. later! I have friends in Arizona and I've actually resorted to calling them to find out the ending. I'm quite sure they think I'm a lunatic but out of the kindness of their hearts they've answered the phone and given me the final rundown.

Back to the topic at hand. I posted my favorite scene from last week's episode. Let me preface this by saying that I'm not a huge (no pun intended) Hugo fan but he does provide comic relief on occasion. I don't know why I like this scene so much but I think it's two reasons. One, that Hugo uses a hotpocket to defend himself and two, that Ben doesn't have to even say anything, his look says it all. Here is a very short clip of Ben, Hugo and a hotpocket.