Thank Goodness It's Monday #332

STILL TALKIN’ TURKEY

FOUR DAYS AFTER THANKSGIVING

Is there a turkey sandwich in your immediate future?

Or does the thought (or sight) of even more post-Thanksgiving turkey make you groan?

Either way, perhaps you should know about Gerry Thomas.

Although he died in 2005 at the age of 83, it’s particularly appropriate to revisit his claim to culinary fame on this Monday after a l-o-n-g weekend of coping with Thanksgiving leftovers.

Plus it provides us with a great life lesson.

Here’s the story: During World War II, Thomas was a U.S. Army intelligence officer and was awarded the Bronze Star for his work in breaking Japanese codes. After the war he went to work as a salesman for C.A. Swanson & Sons.

In 1953, the company overbought turkey for Thanksgiving.

You think you had leftovers? Swanson had 260 tons of “left-over” turkey.

What to do? They had no room to store the excess, so they loaded the half a million+ pounds of poultry into ten refrigerated train cars that had to keep moving continuously so the electricity would stay on.

Clearly, this wasn’t the most efficient solution.

So, as Gourmet magazine reports it, the Swanson brothers challenged their employees to come up with an alternate use for the meat.

Although there is some dispute about the depth of his contribution, for years Gerry Thomas maintained he came up with –

The solution: Package it with side dishes as frozen dinners in aluminum trays.

Swanson TV Dinner
circa 1954 

Talkin’ turkey: Thomas said he designed the company's famous three-compartment aluminum tray (the dessert didn’t appear until 1960) after seeing a similar tray used by Pan Am Airways. He also said he coined the name "TV Dinner" … brainstormed the idea of having the packaging resemble a 50’s-era TV set and … contributed the recipe for the cornbread stuffing.

Historical sidebar: Gerry Thomas abstained from the quickie frozen meals. According to the BBC, Thomas’ wife admitted that he was a gourmet cook (lucky for her) who never ate the dinners.

Thomas later said he was uncomfortable with being called the "father" of the TV Dinner, because he felt he just built upon existing ideas. In 1999 he also observed, “If it were today, we'd probably call it the 'digital dinner'."

In 1954 it was an immediate success: Swanson sold 10 million of the dinners -- at 98 cents each -- in part because they took "only" half an hour to heat up.

The company quickly expanded the line to other meals, which some say Thomas tested on his own family. In the late 1960s he reputedly helped adapt the meal to a new kitchen appliance -- the microwave oven -- which cut prep time to about 5 minutes.

Now, according to the American Frozen Food Institute, the average American eats 72 frozen meals a year, making frozen foods a $22 billion industry.

The Library of Congress says the history of the TV Dinner is murky, but notes that frozen dinners existed several years before Swanson made the idea famous. Pinnacle Foods, which currently owns Swanson, still credits Thomas with proposing the TV Dinner concept.

In an interview with the Associated Press news agency Thomas recalled, “I think the name made all the difference in the world … It’s a pleasure being identified as the person who did this because it changed the way people live.”

Changed the way people lived? If you’re not old enough to recall, that’s actually pretty accurate.

Due to Swanson’s brand notoriety, expansive advertising campaign, and catchy concept, Swanson’s TV Dinner altered the way people approached frozen food.

And that rippled out to have wider societal repercussions.

The great liberator: The TV Dinner gave women (who were predominantly the family cooks) more free time to pursue jobs and other activities while still providing a hot meal for their families.

IMO -- In My Opinion: Gerry Thomas was and is a great example of the EHFTB-FTWMIH credo -- “Everything Happens For The Best—For Those Who Make It Happen.”

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Confronted with a challenge, he drew on skills he had developed and observations he had made and applied them to the situation at hand.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: With a marketer’s “find-a-need-and-fill-it” mindset, he took apparently disparate information he had absorbed (perhaps even unconsciously) in his routine – air travel, kitchen skills, awareness of trends in popular culture, emerging social developments – and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

Then he brought the elements together and applied the Useful Rule of a Successful Product or Service: Be first, best or different.

Can you do the same?

Of course you can. The EHFTB-FTWMIH concept argues simply that you must take action for anything to turn out “For The Best.” You must be ever alert for opportunities to triumph in the face of adversity.

It’s not easy. You can’t be a passive bystander. You must be always preparing for the future. And, when challenges arise, you must rally that preparation and confront them. It isn’t enough to want the best. Continually challenge yourself to know what you’re going to do to get to where you want to be. Effort makes achievement.

Talkin’ Turkey—and makin’ the effort to make it happen.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com   

P.S. Dining with the TV on? “I find TV very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.” Groucho Marx said that in 1984. And speaking of viewing habits --

Watch this: A. C. Nielsen recently determined that the average American watches about 34 hours of TV per week -- practically a full- time job's worth of hours. I’m not clear how much of that is time shifted or on computer screens or via other not-purely-“traditional” viewing. If you want to dig deeper, feel free. As for me, the unadulterated statistic alone is enough to get me to start my list of –

TGIM 2012 Resolutions: Be very discriminating in TV viewing in the New Year.