One less chocolate chip

"The essence of positioning is sacrifice. You must be willing to give up something in order to establish that unique position."
Al Ries & Jack Trout
Positioning: The Battle for your Mind (1986)

So came the news this week that Sesame Street's beloved Cookie Monster is being  asked to sacrifice cookies to project a healthier image.

"My beloved blue, furry monster — who sang “C is for cookie, that’s good enough for me” — is now advocating eating healthy. There’s even a new song — “A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food,” where Cookie Monster learns there are “anytime” foods and “sometimes” foods."

Repositioning is risky business. Can you say NEW COKE?

"Long before they'd tasted a sip of it, millions of Americans had decided they hated New Coke. Yes, in blind taste tests people had consistently said they liked the new formula better. However, a soft drink is so much more than merely its flavor; a soda is also its marketing. Coke had spent more than a hundred years convincing the North American population that its product was an integral part of their lives, their very identities. Taste be damned: to do away with Coca-Cola was to rip something vital from the American soul. Americans (never ones to peaceably go along with anything perceived as violating their identity) weren't going to stand for it, and they weren't shy about saying so. "

In 1985 my friend Libby was one of those angry people who wasn't shy about her anger.  She stockpiled original COKE in her basement. She wrote letters and she got national attention. Saving COKE was her destiny. She was even written up in either TIME or NEWSWEEK. She was my first friend to make it into a national magazine.

Will consumers have a similar reaction to Cookie Monster's new personal brand message?

Chances are the kids will accept a Cookie Monster who shows more moderation in his cookie habit and who  now may say ME EAT BROCCOLI.

However, they may not adore a COOKIE MONSTER who sings Cookies are a sometimes food.

Cookie Monster is more than a character on a children's show that kids adore.  Cookie Monster is Big Business  that depends on an adoring public to generate sales. There are Cookie Monster books. Cookie Monster Christmas Stockings.There's even a Cookie Monster KidzMouse for computers.

Not having adoration could take a bite out of sales of these Cookie Monster Branded Products.

Then there's the parent trap to consider. Parents of the current Sesame Street audience are people who grew up with Cookie Monster. Many of them adored the old Cookie Monster. They may have a more difficult time accepting and adoring the new Cookie Monster.

From an IM shared on Harry's The View From Here.

HARRY: This is preposterous!
NOAM: Absolutely horrible.
HARRY: I mean, do you think you eat more cookies today as a result of Cookie Monster's influence?
NOAM: Uh, no. It's not like I have OCD and count things furiously as a result of The Count's influence.
HARRY: Good point.

As influencers, these parents may opt to buy the ELMO tee-shirt rather than the new and moderately behaved Cookie Monster tee-shirt.

Will Sesame Street stick with the new positioning if kids no longer adore and buy Cookie Monster branded products?  Or in a year from now will they pull a Dallas on us and say it was just a bad dream?