Philadelphia Cream Cheese made a tool to help you turn anything into a 'bagel'

It cuts a hole in the center of any food to make it Philly-worthy

Published On
Sep 17, 2019

Editor's Pick

Bagels and cream cheese are a tag team made in breakfast heaven, but what if there are no bagels left? What can one do with tub or brick of cream cheese sitting in the fridge?

Philadelphia, the cream cheese brand, has a solution. The Bagel That device cuts a hole into other foods—think waffles, a slice of bread or even a slice of pizza (really?)—to make them look more like bagels and therefore ready for cream cheese.

The gimmick is promoted in an online video from Gut. It is the independent agency’s first work on the Philadelphia brand and its first work overall for Philly’s parent company, Kraft Heinz.

In the video, a mom presents the Bagel That to her son and his friends to help them solve their bagel-less breakfast dilemma. The spot includes an '80s-style song with lyrics such as “If it looks like a bagel, then it must be a bagel.”

The device is being promoted as a revolutionary tool and this morning went on sale for $10 on Amazon. But now, the product page shows that it’s currently unavailable. We checked back in with the client's representative, who said that the device is already sold out. 

Let’s be clear, it’s not a device that anyone needs sitting on a kitchen counter. The spot is silly enough that people might share it. And the ad, of course, isn’t really for the food puncher. It’s meant to get people to buy more cream cheese.

“People love spreading Philadelphia cream cheese on bagels, but what happens if you’re craving Philly and don’t have a bagel?” Megan Magnuson, associate director of marketing for Philadelphia, said in a statement. “We created a device to transform other food items into bagels. Have toast? Bagel That. A waffle? Bagel That. Even a tortilla? Bagel That too.”