Moominvalley is often perceived as this remote fantasy world disconnected to the outside world, so let’s look at blatant product placements to shatter that illusion! First off, in the very first novel the Moomins and the Great Flood, the candy land segment features chocolate bars from confectionery producer Fazer, the second biggest Finnish export after the Moomins themselves. Tove Jansson was no stranger to shilling their products as you can see in the enclosed 50s advert for their candy eggs. Moving on, we have what is perhaps the most famous product placement, the Muddler’s home from the Exploits of Moominpappa. Seeing as it’s a main plotpoint that he lives in a Maxwell House Coffee can that he drags around with him, it’s pretty hard to miss. What with Finland being the number one coffee consuming country in the world, Tove basically sustaining solely on that and cigarettes, plus everyone in Moominvalley drinking it every waking second, my guess is this was Tove’s coffee of choice. For something more obscure, this was one I never noticed until just now, but lo and behold! Fillyjonk’s wine of choice is Dopff au moulin as seen in Moominsummer Madness! Will have to buy a bottle of this and get sad drunk to see how it holds up. (Also, Old Smuggler whiskey shows up in the newspaper strip, will perhaps have to make a second post for that as it’s a lot more pictures to go through.) Finally, the perplexing box reading “AB Milda Babymust” which Little My and the Mymble’s Daughter sleep in during Moominland Midwinter. What is it? Well, “babymust“ is a really odd and perplexing term no one ever uses. It roughly translates to “baby juice“, with manufacturer being the joint-stock company (AB - Aktiebolag) Milda, a Swedish butter manifacturer. Verdict for this would be that it’s a box of infant formula, but I could be wrong.
