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Miracle Whip Hints at ‘Whipcoin’ ICO in Playful Tweet

Mayonnaise brand Miracle Whip has taken a humorous poke at the crypto industry with a tongue-in-cheek tweet announcing its planned ICO — an “initial condiment offering” for a cryptocurrency called “Whipcoin.”

The well-received tweet attracted over 140 likes, 21 retweets and 39 comments, with most responses seeing the funny side and some even posting suggestions for blockchain networks that “Whipcoin” could hypothetically use for its infrastructure.

Sign of Changing Times?

Owned by American food processing giant Kraft Heinz, Miracle Whip is marketed as a food dressing alternative to mayonnaise, and with annual sales in excess of $160 million, it is one of America’s most popular food condiments.

While it was clearly a humorous tweet, and the $46 billion corporation behind Miracle Whip is unlikely to sanction a token sale in the foreseeable future, the willingness to engage with online crypto communities is a marked departure from the situation just a couple of years ago when crypto in its totality was seen as a reputational risk by many big businesses.

Now, with reputable private firms like JPMorgan getting into crypto and engaging with the ICO market directly, times are changing and retail brands jnow find it safe to engage with the crypto community online, albeit for purely promotional purposes for the time being.

Miracle Whip on its part did not have all the fun on the thread, with the crypto community keen to engage in a spot of well-earned self parody in a rare light-hearted moment amidst fraught market conditions.

Some suggested blockchains, while others invented their own mining protocols for the token.

In May, CCN.com reported that American hot dog and cold cut maker Oscar Mayer was issued a “cease and desist” notice by 27 year-old IT worker Kirk Steele for its “Bacoin” cryptocurrency stunt, which he said directly ripped off his identical cryptocurrency that launched with the same name in 2014.

Also incidentally owned by Kraft Heinz, Oscar Mayer reportedly released a limited number of “Bacoin” tokens redeemable for packs of Oscar Mayer bacon.

Featured Image from Twitter/Miracle Whip

Last modified: March 4, 2021 3:38 PM

David Hundeyin

I am a busy Nigerian writer, journalist and writer with an interest in tech and finance. When I'm not contributing to CCN and traveling around Africa, you can catch me contributing to CNN Africa, or in the writers room at 'The Other News', Nigeria's weekly answer to 'The Daily Show' with nearly 2 million viewers. My work on 'The Other News' was featured in the New Yorker Magazine, and that was then cited in the Washington Post so I'm not sure that counts as a feature but I'll definitely mention it too! I have been nominated by the US State Department to take part in the 2019 Edward R. Murrow Program for journalists under the International Visitors Leadership Program. I also like hamsters. You can reach me on Twitter at _David_Hundeyin