Recursive Exchange

Let me start by acknowledging that I am three or four years late in noticing the implications of the following. That said, I am also not normally someone who buys or eats Hershey's Kisses in the first place, so I can perhaps be excused for not noticing a thing I wouldn't have noticed if it hadn't been unexpectedly thrust into my personal space over last weekend.

That said: WHAT WERE THEY THINKING????? (You may need to click on the image to enlarge the picture. Be sure to swallow and put down your beverage first.)

I mean, really. Surely I'm not the only person in the room whose reaction was, "Wait, what, do they not realize they've just portrayed the Grinch as a potential sexual predator?"

And yet, a few moments of Googlemancy revealed that evidently this packaging has been around for four or five Christmas seasons now.

Think about this. Wouldn't one expect that in a non-zero percentage of cases, giving a co-worker a box or bag with this slogan on it would be a violation of the relevant employer's anti-harassment policy? (Deity knows that I would never, ever think of giving one of these to a co-worker at my own place of employment.) Might one not also expect that in a non-zero percentage of cases outside a workplace context, the giver of these Kisses might do so in hopes of stealing actual kisses from the recipient, and that some few such givers might subsequently attempt to collect such kisses (or other favors) irrespective of the wishes of their particular recipient(s)?

And that leaves aside the problem that the package design represents a complete and utter mis-characterization of Dr. Seuss' actual Grinch, either before or after having his heart resized. Note particularly here that even pre-reform, he is carefully polite to Cindy-Lou Who when she interrupts his tree-thievery. One has to think that the good Doctor would be appalled, nay, shocked at seeing his creation portrayed as the box copy portrays him. And the Grinch himself strikes me as having an excellent case for a libel or slander action, a la Coyote vs. Acme.

Truth be told, I have to wonder how this got past the approval phase from the people who license Dr. Seuss' material (not to mention the social-media team(s) at Hershey and its marketing agencies). Given that the Seuss licensors have actually pulled a handful of his original books from circulation due to the content having not aged well, you'd think they'd have realized the implications of the Kiss packaging before it went into production.

I am sorely tempted to go look up contact info for the Seuss licensing outfit and write a letter....