There’s nothing quite like the mouth-watering taste and smell of an oven-baked jacket potato, so McCain Foods specially designed a “Jacket Taxi” to mobilize and maximize the appetizing scent of its new product launch through the streets of London and other major urban centers in the United Kingdom.
Touring six cities for five days in late November, passengers hopped on board to enjoy a free ride and sample a piping hot jacket potato, made in the taxi, at the end of their five-minute journey – the time it takes to prepare the McCain Ready Baked Jackets in a microwave oven. The Scarborough, Yorkshire, England-headquartered company’s publicity road show was part of an ongoing £8.4 million marketing campaign.
McCain’s potato experts put their heads together to recreate the pleasing scent of oven-baked potatoes which emitted from a 3D, giant-size mock jacket potato steaming on the roof of the taxi. This allowed passers-by to take in the appetizing aroma of warm jacket potatoes as the cab rolled through the capital, as well as Birmingham, Manchester, York, Leeds and Bristol.
The production of the modified taxi took five weeks to complete, and several potato designs were considered for the simulated Ready Baked Jacket which sits on the cab’s roof. The interior was adapted to house the cooking facilities needed prepare servings in just five minutes, as well as feature a flip down tablet screen from the roof.
Professor Charles Spence, a neurogastronomist at Oxford University, commented: “There is a direct correlation between the smell of our favorite foods, such as a warm baked potato, and how it heightens our level of enjoyment when eating them. The ready-baked smell is what people really like.”
Research findings suggest that aroma is most important, since as much as 80-90% of flavor appreciation comes from one’s nose. Yale University neuroscientist Gordon M. Shepherd, in his book Neurogastronomy: How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why it Matters, says that the mechanics of smell, particularly the way it stimulates the nose from the back of the mouth, is the main component of flavor perception. As we eat, the brain conceptualizes smells as spatial patterns, and from these and the other senses it constructs the perception of flavor.
McCain Ready Baked Jackets taste and smell like an oven-baked jacket, but can be cooked in only five minutes, so there’s no need to wait an hour for the oven-baked ones! Top quality potatoes are cross-cut, drizzled with sunflower oil and slowly oven-baked at McCain processing plants. All end-users have to do is pop them in a microwave oven and then add favorite toppings, in desired.
Health-conscious consumers concerned about ingredients will be pleased to know that McCain Ready Baked Jackets score four “green traffic lights” for fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt. A pack of two sells for approximately £1.64, while a four-pack goes for £2.50.
