How Avocados Were Rescued By The Super Bowl
Whether or not your favorite team made it to this year's Super Bowl, you can bet one of your favorite snacks will make an appearance at a party — especially if you're hosting! Sure, the high-stakes game and hilarious commercials are part of the fun, but can we talk about our favorite Super Bowl foods? Just thinking about all the spicy chicken wings, hot pizza, and messy sliders we plan on eating on February 13 has us eagerly counting off the days until the Big Event arrives.
Another fan favorite for the day is guacamole. If you're planning on making this zesty dip, then avocados are likely on your Super Bowl shopping list — and everyone else's! According to Mexico News Daily, in preparation for Super Bowl Sunday, as much as 154,000 tons of Mexican avocados will be sent to the U.S. Though guacamole is nothing short of an expectation at any Super Bowl party worth its snuff these days, this wasn't always the case.
A PR strategy put guacamole in the game
Avocados haven't always been the sought-after fruit they are now. In an effort to create more awareness (and, therefore, more sales) of avocados in the United States in the '90s, a PR firm named Hill & Knowlton came up with a game-changing strategy. According to The Atlantic, Bonnie Goodman, who worked at the company, and her team created the innovative "Guacamole Bowl" concept. The idea was to gather and distribute guacamole recipes from NFL players and their families and have fans try out the recipes in order to select a winner. To promote the campaign, the PR team strategically peppered reporters with guacamole samples to get even more coverage, making for a smart play, indeed!
By this time, the Super Bowl celebration in America had already begun to focus less on the game, and more on an excuse to enjoy food and beverages with friends, according to the CBC, making the country ripe for a Super Bowl snack-related sales pitch. The CBC reports the plan worked masterfully, and Guacamole Bowl was a hit as sales increased and the value of avocados surged by almost 70% from 1988 to 2000. Today, guacamole is so popular, that if you want to make it for a Super Bowl party you'll be attending this year, you may want to pick up the phone and call an interception before anyone else beats you to buying those avocados!