Arnold Schwarzenegger, the new apple of Austria’s eye?
Last week, exhibitors at the International Green Week in Berlin were touting something called “Arnold Apples” — a pumped-up apple variety that’s a mix between a Golden Delicious and a Jonathan that’s grown in California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s native Austria.
Talk about outsourcing: The apple, according to the website, is being marketed by an Austrian-based company that uses the slogan: “An Arnold a day keeps the doctor away!” When we talked with the governor’s office today, his media rep hadn’t heard of the Arnold Apple and promised to look into the matter. Muscletime.com reports that one of the brawny apples sells in Europe — in a package that bears his face — for 1 Euro ($1.48).
Meanwhile, a little closer to home … next Monday he and his wife, Maria Shriver, will appear in cameo roles (playing themselves) in a new California tourism ad that will begin running on commercial and cable networks. In the ad, the first couple dines at the upscale Geoffrey’s in Malibu.
The point: to position California as America’s “Capital of Culinary Travel,” according to a press release from the California Travel & Tourism Commission. Perhaps this could be the beginning of a whole series of tourism videos for the governor: Arnold eating garlic fries at the Gilroy Garlic Festival or eggplant ice cream at the Loomis Eggplant Festival.
Other famed foodies — chef Thomas Keller of French Laundry, Suzanne Goin of Lucques and Guy Fieri of the Food Network — also talk up California cuisine in video snippets at Landofwineandfood.com. My favorite was watching the drama unfold as Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards in Northern California answers the most relevant question of our time, “If I were a wine, I’d be …”
Standing in a vineyard, Draper admits that he’d love to be a zinfandel — open and exhuberant — but alas, his seriousness casts him in the role of a Bordeaux cabernet. Andrew Firestone of Curtis Winery in Santa Barbara’s wine country (who also appeared on “The Bachelor” in 2003) describes himself as a syrah — “jammy and fruity and very inviting.” So who gets to be Champagne?
— Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
[Photo: Nestor Bachmann / EPA]
2 Comments on “Arnold Schwarzenegger, the new apple of Austria’s eye?”
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February 1st, 2008 at 11:36 pm
[...] That is simply so corny and audacious that it just might work….Have to wonder, though, if Arnold Schwarzenegger is getting paid any royalty by the company who’s behind this stunt, Frutura Vertriebs Gmbh (www.frutura.at), for the use of his name and his brand? The LA Times reports that his media rep had no idea about the apples, so I guess the official position is that the Governor has nothing to do with Arnold the apple. But could a company be so totally lacking in business ethics that they would print his image and name on their carton, and use his name as brand, without in any way paying for it? [...]
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:12 am
Hi, I read as much as I can about food and travel and have just realised that I am a Culinary Tourist and have been all my life [I am in my mid 40's]
I live in the UK and now travel as often as I can using food/beverage destinations to organise my trip.
I have a few comments regarding the above. It is excellent that food and drink is being promoted as a tourist attraction and I feel this is a huge niche that has been long missed in favour of theme parks and the like- but dont rest on your laurels of “famed chefs” and the like, the majority of visitors wont be eating with them, but the law of statistics alone!
Visitors eat on average 3 times a day, every day. Food is the thing we discuss most upon returning home and as it is such an emotive activity it builds many, many memories of our trip, this encourages- or not a re-visit a destination depending upon the experience we have received.
The marketing of destinations is a huge thing and so easy to get wrong such as your latest ad shown in the UK where the majority of people who have seen it believe it is an ad about moving to California to work! That was a bummer of an advertising programme!
As consumers we need an unbiased approach that offers equity between the larger restaurants and the smaller dinners that offer unique and localised eating/drinking experiences!
we need to be able to book tables on line, view customers reviews and not just read a food critique, read menus and philosophies of eateries, vineyards/breweries/culinary schools [a big thing to come I think, travelling to take part in cookery schools!!]
We need a standardised place where we can gain information from one source and not be blinded by tiny biased micro-sites that are often expensive to put together and give little information that is of little use.
I am always searching for the ultimate travel resource, books are to heavy and are out of date the moment they are printed- they just don’t work.
I have however found [via Google oddly] a site called “FoodTrekker.com” it is new and at present mainly based with you guys in the US, but it offers so much all of the above plus much more. I think this is the way we will go, it aims to be global and multi-lingual and is free for us consumers [hurrah!] so a lot cheaper than outdated travel books!
This is exciting, and will help in so many ways along with bringing culinary/beverage education to the consumers table!! The world is now in competition with itself to attract visitors, and I feel this is becoming serious stuff with the £ being so strong against the $ at the moment. Eat, drink and travel,, these are exctitinng times!