Dr. Seuss Enterprises has launched a brand called Seuss Chef, which will be used to promote existing and new Dr. Seuss cookbooks from Random House Books for Young Readers, highlight new Dr. Seuss cooking content, and identify kitchen-related Seuss Chef-branded licensed products.
“We started Seuss Chef as an inspirational foodie brand for kids,” said Shannon Spisak, senior director of marketing and communications at DSE. “It’s a way to take our signature characters and teach about healthy eating and safe cooking techniques, and to bring that Seussian humor to the foodie category.”
Random House is publishing a new cookbook, Cook It! The Dr. Seuss Cookbook for Kid Chefs: 50+ Yummy Recipes, in January 2022. The book includes recipes tied to a variety of Seuss characters. “There are a lot of food and cooking type themes in the books, and a lot of ways to play with these themes in the recipes,” Spisak said. An original video series to promote the book will feature young kid-influencer chefs trying out the dishes.
The publisher is also adding to its cooking-related Step into Reading line, releasing Cooking with The Lorax, also in January 2022. The title will join older books in the series, including Cooking with the Cat, Cooking with the Grinch, and Cooking with Sam I Am.
While the books are not branded under the Seuss Chef name, the products will be. DSE has signed tabletop items and kitchen textiles, and its future plans include foods, cookware and bakeware, cooking-themed toys, and small appliances, among other related merchandise.
In another new venture, DSE is encouraging its consumer product licensees to use artwork developed by Random House for its seasonal board book series based on Thing 1 and Thing 2. “The books have been so successful, we took their themes and style and made a style guide that we’re sharing with our licensees this year,” Spisak said. “Everybody loves the Things. They’re just fun.” Products that feature the artwork will be tied to holidays throughout the year, in keeping with the books, whose titles range from Lovey Things for Valentine’s Day and Spooky Things for Halloween. The style guide also includes a new baby look called Little Things.
In the education space, DSE and Random House are launching a series of multi-subject workbooks featuring the Seuss characters this fall. DSE has created a new original singalong video series to complement those titles. The one-minute videos, which will air on YouTube, were created with education-focused creative agency Big Yellow Taxi, the group that helped develop the workbooks. Each of the videos focuses on one concept, such as counting by 10s or rhyming, with each song reflecting a different style of music.
