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PHILADELPHIA — A Utah native and his wife have found a way to sweeten the 2016 Presidential election, while having a little fun and giving to charity, too.
Mitt Coats, a Holladay native now a medical student living in Philadelphia and his wife, Sam Gutierrez, started Candidate Candy in March, an online candy store that lampoons this year’s presidential candidates in the sense they are portrayed.
There is “Trumpy Taffy”, “Clint Cat” and “Sandero Gold-Berns” — among others that have since dropped out of the presidential race. There could be more ideas in the future regarding eventual vice presidential candidates, Coats said. Each spoof a candidate or political figure with a popular candy.
“It was definitely sort of inspired by what we thought the caricature of their campaign was about,” Coats said. “We’ve tried to lampoon (each candidate) in a way that wasn’t vulgar or crude, but at the same time sort of captured how they were coming across through the mainstream media.”
The candy, Coats said, is made by chocolatiers and candymakers across the greater Philadelphia area, and the company has reached out to other candymakers across the country.
The company began receiving its first orders shortly after beginning, Coats said.
While Coats and Gutierrez have entered the candy industry, their journey there is a bit obscure. Coats graduated from The Waterford School in Sandy and attended Dartmouth College, where he wound up meeting Gutierrez.
After the two got married, they moved to Philadelphia. Coats enrolled in medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, and Gutierrez went to law school at Temple University.
Candidate Candy came about as the two, and Coats’ friend from medical school, bounced around ideas that made them laugh. There was always candy in the house and Coats had been inspired from Airbnb’s satirical cereals from the 2008 election, and quickly the company idea came together.
Coats was working on a separate sports-related startup at the time. Despite the backgrounds in medical and law schools, Coats took control of website design and Gutierrez designed the products — in addition to all of the law aspects of running a company.
“It’s definitely one of those things that some people are like, ‘Wow, you went to law school and medical school and you’re doing this?’ Coat said with a snicker. “I think we’ve gotten a range of responses from people that have gotten a good laugh out of it and understood why we’re doing it, and other people that maybe not have found it as funny.
"We never thought we’d do anything in candy or sweets; it was really an off-the-cuff funny afternoon making these up. Then we were like ‘Let’s just try it and see what happens.’"
The political satire catches the eye, but Candidate Candy has other options that are more serious.
The company's "National Treasure" collection features G.I. gummy candies, a chocolate Liberty Bell and American flag chocolate suckers. The idea is to celebrate the parts of America that Coats said have been forgotten.
"We’ve entertained the idea of an American-themed store here in Philadelphia for visitors to come and have more of the sweets be themed around key historical figures and events," he said. "The history of Philly and the country is really important to us, but we felt like it’s so easily hijacked and forgotten during the political process."
In addition to that, Coats said both he and Gutierrez wanted to give back.
A current promotion notes the company will donate 25 cents to the Wounded Warrior Project "for every follower, share and tag" before Memorial Day on May 30. The company also gives military members a 10 percent discount.
Coats said he had developed friendships with veterans at Dartmouth that worked with the Wounded Warrior Project and that inspired the company partnership with the charity.
In addition, the company donates 10 percent of all profits to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and donates $1 to the hospital for each submission of a form on its website.
That's where Coats' medical background kicks in.
“I’ve really been interested in cancer research and know how hard it is to get funding,” Coats said. “We wanted to make sure to donate to St. Jude’s and make that a part of the candy and sort of giving back to causes we felt like everyone could rally behind, and sort of reinforce that we don’t want to be particularly partisan.”
Given the satire, nonpartisanship is a core of the business. The company playfully boasts on its social media account that it is "biased on all sides" and "pro-nobody."
In many senses, the company's present and future only leans toward the consumer, not any particular politician.
"We’ll decide where the consumer demand is and where we think we can provide a really great service that’s fun and tasty for everybody," Coats said.
