I love this campaign. It combines interactivity, nostalgia, brand loyalty, viral markting, and a buying imperative into one fun package, with the bonus of fostering an emotional bond with packaging.

If one of your chain-letter-prone friends hasn't sent it already, check out www.spicecheckchallenge.com, brought to you by the company behind all those sweet little tins on your grandma's spice shelf... Can't you just picture granny sprinkling cinnamon from one of those little tins onto her homemade apple pie? Can't you almost smell it?

Well, if you're picturing a recent holiday, you may want to tell granny that her cinnamon is at least 15 years old. Is it dangerous? No, not really, but McCormick would like you to (surprise, surprise) buy new spices.

The Spice Check Challenge web site offers info on how to determine how old the spices on your shelf are (hint: if they were made in Baltimore, time to buy new ones) and a public board where you can tell the world that you're a disgusting person who just served an Oscar party dip made with paprika from 1992.

What strikes me about the postings is the strong emotional attachment people seem have to those little tins and how very clever McCormick is to have executed a highly-bloggable campaign that creates those attachments where they didn't previous exist, e.g., "oh, that Thyme is from 1962! It must have been my grandmother's...I can still picture the curtains in her kitchen..."

Ahh, the power of marketing.