Why Unilever made Sandwich, the hot new food magazine
Mayo, ketchup and mustard brands are stalwarts of traditional marketing.
You know, ads, TV spots, billboards, etc. The usual stuff we associate with FMCG-type brands. Sir Kensington's, Unilever’s young condiments disruptor, wanted to do more than buy ads in others’ magazines and decided to play by its own rules. To champion food as a connector, it teamed up with TCO, the creative team behind innovative indie culture and film magazines Little White Lies and Huck to make a new food quarterly called Sandwich.
The new magazine uses the humble sandwich as a springboard to explore the wider world of foodie culture – and the communities it brings together. The launch issue takes the iconic BLT as a jumping off point. It explores a new trend of female butchers, documents lettuce’s role in the race to colonise Mars, and looks at the – sometimes terrifying – role the tomato plays in movies. It also features a stunning photo essay on the community who cleans up after the annual La Tomatina food fight festival in Spain.
These stories remind us of the power of food while giving a platform to a new wave of journalists, photographers and illustrators who bring an alternative perspective to food journalism. Our vision for Sandwich is that it adds an important new voice to the media landscape, applying a premium journalistic lens to food culture. Which is also why we don’t give it away: it retails at $15 at boutique newsstands and online.
“The sandwich is so simple, so ubiquitous and so often underrated. And yet when we started telling friends we were making a magazine about the sandwich, every person beamed,” says Matthew Lloyd, CMO at Sir Kensington’s. “Turns out the sandwich is a joyously accessible hometown hero but it can be as sophisticated and varied as you’ll find across global culinary traditions. That’s why every issue of Sandwich magazine seeks to celebrate a single sandwich and dives into its history, taxonomy and anatomy.”
Positive reviews were quick to arrive. Campaign said Sandwich might just be “The (New York) Times Magazine of culinary publications”, AdWeek lauded its use of “vivid illustrations” and “lively photography” to explore “modern society through a fun, food-based lens”, and Monocle Radio interviewed the editor and art director. Requests to stock the mag have come from countries as far away as South Africa, Australia, as well as from across the US and Europe. While the new sandwich Instagram channel is quickly gaining a following online.
The appeal of the sandwich is universal. And we look forward to surprising readers by showing how you can discover new worlds between slices of bread. Everyone has an opinion and a favourite sandwich. What's yours?
