The point the commercials are trying to get across to consumers is that specialization, whether borne our of geographic location or market concentration, makes their salsas better than any of those that might be produced by diversified product manufacturers some distance from the Mexican border. Never mind that Pace, following its recent acquisition, will be run by a company headquartered in Camden, NJ, (Campbell Soup Co.), or that Chi-Chi's is one arm of Foodmakers, Inc. of San Diego, CA, whose other arm is the Jack-in-the-Box hamburger chain. Salsa makers aren't the first to equate specialization with superiority. Among processors, cheese makers from Switzerland consider Swiss cheese from any place else inferior, and French, Italian, German and California wine makers are particularly insistent that their domestically produced varieties are superior to those made elsewhere.
Pharmaceutical Makers Show Preference for Dedicated Suppliers
Pace Foods, the San Antonio-based salsa producer, has gotten a lot of mileage out of a series of television commercials emphasizing its Tex-Mex heritage and deriding the competition's product for being made "in New York City?!!" In the same vein, Chi-Chi's, Inc., the Mexican restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, KY, has an amusing TV commercial for its retail-packed salsa in which the ceo of some unnamed competitor asks his managers whether the company should make salsa or oven mitts.
Dec 31, 1994
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