Chrissy Teigen is a woman of many brands. Some of her brands are based on social clout, like being extremely obnoxious on social media. Some of her brands are actual products, like everything to do with her Cravings “empire.” She writes cookbooks and she has monetized her love of cooking and food with a kitchen accessories line and cake mixes. The cake mixes are a problem though. Chrissy has just introduced her new gourmet (high-end) cake mix line under the Cravings banner. The problem is that Teigen has seemingly lifted the recipes, product design and vibe from a New Zealand baker named Jordan Rondel. From Gawker:
If the name Jordan Rondel sounds familiar, that’s probably because she collaborated with Teigen on a boxed carrot cake mix in September. Rondel, whose brand is called The Caker, sells “luxury” cake mixes for $25 a box on Amazon and at Bloomingdale’s. Rondel now says that Teigen tried to get out of their collaboration once she found out that her “new equity partner” wanted her to sell her own line of mixes. Rondel told the NZ outlet Stuff that she pushed to launch the collaboration anyway, with the understanding that Teigen’s mixes would be different from hers. But now, she thinks, they’re pretty similar.
Rondel posted comparison photos of the packaging of her cake mixes and the Cravings mixes. Yeah – very similar. Did Teigen also jack the recipes too? Probably. What makes this especially audacious is the fact that Rondel and Teigen knew each other and collaborated. Then Teigen just jacked Rondel’s whole business. What a way to screw over a small woman-owned business.
Photos courtesy of Chrissy’s IG, and Rondel’s IG.
A lot of these things look pretty much the same to me in the grocery store, so I honestly can’t tell one way or another if there’s some copyrighted graphic design violations going on here. And of course there are only so many ways to design a cake box mix.
That being said, would I believe it of her? Yup, I would. Shame, she’s got enough money to pay someone to knock out a whole set of unique ones and she goes and does this? Any extra costs would absolutely be offset by the massive sales profits she’s set to get.
CT never ceases to amaze me with her scum bag ways. To me The most shocking part of all is that anyone would actually want to collaborate with her at all!!!
In answer to your question? Yep, she did. Probably thought she could get away with it because The Caker is from a small country at the bottom of the world and won’t have the $$$ to fight this out in court. Thanks for covering this Kaiser.
And absolutely she doesn’t. I’m in NZ and she was on the news last night saying exactly that.
$25 for a box of cake mix!? I couldn’t really focus after reading that part.
However, the facts are kind of fuzzy. It seems that they wanted to launch a line together, but the partnership fell through. Then each of them launched a line separately, and not surprisingly, the lines were very similar, because they were probably both reusing what they had worked on together. I guess it depends what they had agreed to do when they had split, but if there was bad feeling because of the split, probably the parting terms weren’t clear. I am not sure Teigen is the bad guy here. I mean, she could be! But it isn’t clear.
No, that’s not right. The Caker had an established line of mixes which they had worked hard to develop and market. They collaborated with Chrissy to create one specific cake mix because they thought it would bring extra attention to their brand. Chrissy and her people tried to pull out of the collaboration to instead launch a competing range of mixes. The woman behind The Caker insisted the collaboration go ahead as planned (I imagine there was a legal agreement that meant any cancellation had to be mutual). The collaboration was successful and the product sold out. After the collaboration was finished Chrissy launched her own competing range, which clearly copies the branding and approach of her prior collaborator. As someone else has said, she is relying on the fact that the woman is a small business owner and won’t have the resources to take her to court.
If your explanation is accurate, then to beat up on CT for launching her own line is just the usual “eat the rich” mentality going on here.
The Caker should have seen the writing on the wall and not insist on the collab going forward but instead, ask for a hefty pay-out (which, by the way, should have been in a contract before anything got started). Because it seems that CT merely continued on with the collab so as not to get all legal n’ shit on these small-biz folks, but at the same time, would NOT be held back from launching her own brand of this particular product which may or may not have had its origins in the collab.
In other words, its just business. The only surprising thing is that it appears that legal fell down on the job; a detailed contract prior to the collab should have factored in all eventualities, including one or both parties wanting out before the collab came to fruition. Plus, a non-compete clause. Etc.
ETA:
“(I imagine there was a legal agreement that meant any cancellation had to be mutual).”
There is no such clause in a contract. All parties in a contract can change their mind. Obviously, there wd be consequencies for so doing, but a contract is not a jail sentence.
@Kingston, re: ‘The Caker should have seen the writing on the wall’ bit, I think at that point they would’ve been screwed either way. If she allowed CT to back out of the deal, then she would lose her celebrity collab and all the clout that comes with it. Plus at that point I think you’d have to be pretty dense not to realize that CT would be launching her own product. So, do you back out and maybe get a payout but lose the collab, or do you go ahead with the collab and try to use that to boost name recognition of your own brand ahead of the CT launch? IDK, I can see the reasoning both ways.
CT is within her rights to launch her own product of course, but while it’s not illegal it is pretty sh*tty to start working with someone and then decide to just copy them instead and potentially cannibalize their whole business model.
What strikes me is, the design doesn’t really seem to be really unique. Like you can’t trademark pastels and pastries. Nobody owns chocolate cake. If the recipes were exact copies then I think she’d have a better chance of fighting it, but this just seems like CT sort of remixed (no pun intended) the idea to include other mixes like banana bread and pancakes, not exact replicas of all The Caker’s recipes. So, not illegal, and definitely typical capitalism, but really sh*tty all the same and a dumb decision for CT since she doesn’t exactly need more negative publicity. More than anything it just speaks to her poor character but unfortunately I’m not sure what The Caker can really do about it beyond airing it out on social media.
Trixc: Ok, that characterizes the history differently. But even so, I looked at the products and they are quite different. The Caker’s mixes are $25 and are for unusually flavored layer cakes with pan liners and decorations included. CT’s are not for layer cakes, but for more traditionally flavored cookies, pancakes, and banana bread, and are around $7-8 each. The packaging shares a bit of a similar style, but not enough to be actionable, I think. I can understand why the Caker might be frustrated, but none of this seems to rise to the level of some kind of infringement.
I will stick to baking from scratch. So much cheaper, tastes better, and only takes about ten more minutes.
Checked the mixes, but can’t find similar ones.
Wouldn’t they have to sell the same types of mixes for there to be plagiarism? Teigen doesn’t even sell a cake kit under her own brand, just banana bread, cookies, waffles and pancakes.
Chrissy Teigen is a very problematic person, and it would be great if she could stay canceled. I know she’s moved the conversation forward on stillbirths and miscarriages, but she has done sooo many shady things to negate the good she’s done.
This just proves no one actually gets cancelled. You can do mean things and still stay rich and famous. It’s just like highschool where the popular mean girls stay popular no matter what they do.
This is so freaking shitty. I’ve followed Chrissy for about 10 years. Long enough to remember that she hated baking. Like a lot. It was never her thing and she was very open about loving cooking so much and sucking at baking. Now this. So disingenuous.
Sucking at baking is exactly why you would use a box cake mix, though. Those of us that actually bake would never use a mix!
There’s definitely similarities, but I don’t know if it’s close enough to prompt legal action. But it’s kind of crappy that she collaborated with this person, and then basically took all the ideas and launched her own thing. I totally can believe she didn’t care and thought them too small to fight her and her wealth/fame.
The big question for me is, why did The Caker folks persist in pursuing the collab when CT obviously wanted out? That was a big red flag that problems were on the way. They should have sought to protect themselves.
It sounds like it was either force the collaboration or let Chrissy Teigen run away with her brand
Yeah–it’s strange. Whether or not the designs are similar (they don’t strike me as that unique), the products seem different. All of The Caker’s mixes are for cakes; none of Chrissy’s mixes are. There’s just banana bread, pancakes & cookie mixes as far as I can tell.
I don’t like Chrissy, but it sounds like a partnership soured & this person figured they could get some attention while blowing off steam.
The heck is luxury cake mix…..? Unless the flavoring ingredients are something special/expensive, stick to Betty Crocker.
It seems it’s cake mix for rich people, which is hilarious since rich people just buy expensive cakes instead.
Ah I see. Just checking that AP flour hasn’t gotten some sort of upgrade I should be aware of lol
I was curious enough to go and check. The Caker uses almond flour, coconut sugar, Callebaut chocolate, and Intelligentsia coffee. Still, though.
This product contains artisanal baking soda. The wheat is grown on a family owned farm that honors the organic, sustainable methods first implemented 150 years ago by the first Dahmoore to work the fertile, Oregon soil. Each stalk of wheat is plucked by hand from the earth by workers who hum the tune of Sweet Caroline as they tend to the land.
Insert the ‘had me in the first half’ gif here, LOL. Plucked to the tune of Sweet Caroline, how decadent!
I was buying it until the very last sentence, then it clicked lol!
All I can say is the nails on all the packages (except one) kind of make it unappealing. I can’t pinpoint it except say they are very Kardashian.
So unnecessary to begin with. She’s so detached from reality.
Looks like some sleazy copy-catting to me.
That’s really awful on Chrissy’s part…so not surprised. Some of these celebrity chefs, some, not all, really shouldn’t be cooking, they are just out there hacking around and have no idea what they are doing. Now, please tell me who is paying $25 for a box mix??? Holy f#$K! Does that include the frosting? I hope it’s at least a 9×13 size for that price!
Sounds exactly on brand for Chrissy. Also I’ve lost any respect I had for John Legend. Clearly he is ok with his wife being a bully, garbage human so I guess he falls into that same category. They can both go away.
I find Chrissy Teigen insufferable; the only reason I clicked on this story was to say altho’ I cannot stand her, could we not use her dead baby’s name [jack] in the headline [and repeatedly throughout the piece].
How about stole. She’s a self-centered asshole that stole ideas and branding.
Thank you. <3
@chanteloup, “jack” is a slang term for stealing. For example: carjacking. They’re not using her baby’s actual name. Seems like an odd thing to pick on the writer for.
I was all prepared to be annoyed at Chrissy for “stealing” a business idea from a small business but I don’t think that’s what actually happened here? In fact aside from the boxes being kinda similar (although they still look quite different to me, and I don’t think The Caker’s product design is all that original anyway) I’m not sure what The Caker lady’s beef actually is.
The Caker sells cake mixes at $30 NZ a pop whereas Chrissy doesn’t sell any cake mixes (she has banana bread, cookies and pancakes) ranging from $7 to $10 USD and you can get a bundle of all 3 for $21. So…they aren’t even in direct competition with each other. If you want to bake one of the Caker’s cakes you aren’t going to buy a mix from Chrissy because she doesn’t have any of the same ones (or indeed any cake mixes at all). It’s certainly possible that Chrissy got inspired by what The Caker lady was doing to do her own baking mixes but given that The Caker Lady did NOT INVENT baking mixes its also possible that Chrissy was planning on her own line even before their collab. But if is she was inspired by what The Caker lady was doing CT still didn’t copy her because, again, Caker lady didn’t invent baking mixes. None of Chrissy mixes are the same as The Caker’s and vice versa.
The cynic in me is tempted to think that The Caker lady is creating a tempest in a tea pot to drum up interest in her own products.
[side note the picture of Chrissy on her website for the banana bread one is NOT as sexy as she thinks it is…]
Am no defender of Chrissy Teigen but I have to say, I agree with HME. The two lines are very different price points (one luxury, the other not), different flavor styles (one fancier, the other more mainstream), one is cake, the other isn’t…. I’m sure the Caker quality is a lot higher. As for the packaging and copy, the little story + signature, and an image against a white background, are commonly used.
If Cravings & Chrissy are guilty of anything, it’s not coordinating well across their own organization. Sounds like Chrissy was pursuing the collab with Jordan / The Caker, in parallel to the Cravings team working on the mixes. When the Cravings team realized it was too close they tried to pull out of the agreement with The Caker. But The Caker asked Chrissy to honor their agreement, since they’d invested so much time, and she did, then went on with her own thing. Which is fine?
I mean, both of these boxes just look like the King Arthur baking mix boxes? No one is original here.
What CT has done here is really shitty on a few levels. Sure, some put it down to “just business” and OMG the products are nothing alike! But that’s missing the point. The women behind The Caker have spent years trying to build their brand and I believe they hit the US market prior to CT (someone correct me if I’m wrong) and then by copying the general vibe of The Caker, CT has basically sucked out all the oxygen around her product.
Would CT have looked at a co-lab if The Caker was simply a little business from half a world away? No, she fucking wouldn’t. She knew what she was doing.
I would like to say,
I am from NZ and can confirm the caker cakes are AMAZING.
The quality is on another level.
I honestly think most Americans don’t know what good, quality food is.
This ain’t no Betty Crocker.
Don’t @ me either because half y’all in the comments lately are insufferable and I don’t care enough to argue.
If you are ever in Auckland, check out her store on karangahape road.
(Pre order a cake online first)
You will not be disappointed !