Maker of the original "TV dinner" launches ad campaign
Swanson, the originator of the frozen dinner, is reinvigorating the brand thanks to its new owners, according to this New York Times story (registration required):
The commercial, part of a new $10 million TV campaign created by the Interpublic Group's Foote, Cone & Belding in New York, could not be further from Swanson ads for its frozen dinners in the 1950's. Swanson invented the "TV dinner" in 1953 as emergency food for busy housewives. But the country's more demanding palate and corporate indifference have turned this piece of Americana into little more than a subject of wistful nostalgia.
...But it is a booming market. Back when Swanson TV dinners were introduced, housewives were valued as cooks and TV dinners were the food you let the baby sitter serve or what you ate when Dad was out. Today, women are no longer preparing from scratch. Instead, they are assembling food from a variety of sources, ranging from the freezer case to fast food restaurants to supermarket take-out.
"Women are becoming food assemblers, not food preparers," said Dianne Jacobs, general manager of frozen foods at Pinnacle.
In fact, the overall trend in dining is to let someone else do it, said Harry Balzar, vice president at the NPD Group, a Chicago-based market research firm. He said only 33 percent of all dinners are cooked from scratch, and that number is declining.
"It's all attributable to one fact and that is that 77 percent of all dinner in America is prepared by women," said Mr. Balzar. "And you can't tell me that with all the demands and pressures women have on their time that the job of cooking is not a job they would want to get out of. Women are transforming meal preparation."