Goldfish Grow Up

We just call them Chilean Sea Bass Crackers.

That’s the new, grown-up name for Campbell’s Goldfish crackers.

The new name for Goldfish is an effort by Pepperidge Farm and its parent company Campbell’s to attract a more grown-up audience.

“We know the love for Goldfish spans all ages. Chilean Sea Bass is a playful nod to adults that the iconic fish-shaped snack is for grown-up tastes too,” said Danielle Brown, Goldfish’s vice President.   

The company is selling a limited number of special edition bags online each day. On Friday, they were sold out by 9:30 in the morning.

The move also prompted quick coverage in The Inquirer and a whole lot of other outlets. A dedicated social push helped further amplify the new name.

Image via Goldfish

Nom Nom de Plume

It’s not the first tactic Goldfish has used to try to reel in older eaters. It released decidedly grown-up flavors like Old Bay and Frank’s Red Hot.

In this case, the brand was quick to point out that Chilean Sea Bass is a “new, adult-sounding name” but the crackers have the same Goldfish taste.

The new Goldfish name comes hot on the heels of a far less playful – and far more permanent – name change at Campbell’s.

Goldfish’s appeal to adults actually tracks back to its origins as a bar snack and soup topper in the ‘60s. An Inky deep dive into the cracker reports that they were Campbell’s first savory snack. They traveled into space on the Space Shuttle Discovery in the ‘80s, and a smile was added to the crackers in the ‘90s.

Those efforts made Goldfish more kid-friendly, and now Campbell’s is trying to steer the school of crackers into more mature waters.

Of course, Chilean Sea Bass had its own marketing makeover (as detailed in one of our earliest editions of Long Story Short) with a rename from Patagonian toothfish.