You’ve heard of a “catfish”—a pretend on-line identification adopted by somebody who desires to trick or rip-off different individuals. Clear ketchup was a “snackfish,” and Benji is the UK’s primary snackfisher. Benji’s Instagram account—UK Snack Assault—is residence to pistachio-flavored Coco Pops, pickle-shaped Haribo, mint Coca-Cola, ice-cream Pringles, and butter Oreos.
It began with uncommon Fantas. In 2019, Benji and his college housemates loved searching round for imported Fanta flavors and “making a little ceremony” out of tasting them. From there, the computing scholar turned obsessive about in search of out “weird” snacks, which he posted on his private Instagram web page. “I realized I should probably stop harassing my friends by posting snacks, so I shifted it to its own account,” says Benji, who requested WIRED to not disclose his surname for privateness causes.
Benji’s account was aggressively easy—he’d go to the outlets and take pictures of recent meals. “But then lockdown happened, and going to the supermarket and handling food was not a great look,” he says. So as an alternative of fondling meals, he began making it. After following an internet recipe for white chocolate Nutella, Benji began concocting completely different chocolate spreads each weekend—on-line, he referred to as it Unfold Saturday. A self-taught photoshopper, Benji additionally made pretend labels for his creations. However then sooner or later an organization he was imitating despatched him a message basically saying: “Hey, can you say it’s not real please? We’re getting a lot of messages asking to buy this!”
And so snackfishing was born. “In some ways, I wanted to trick people online,” Benji admits. “I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t that.” However over Zoom, Benji isn’t remotely trollish; he has a gentle-speaking method, wire-framed glasses, and what seems like a comfortable fleece. When the world emerged from lockdown, Benji began staging his snackfishes in outlets, filming himself pulling them off the cabinets. At first, Benji’s family and friends have been perplexed. “Are you OK? Is this a normal thing to do?” However they have been quickly onboard, and his mum and grandma took him out for afternoon tea when he hit 200,000 followers.
As we speak, Benji provides disclosures to each put up (“THESE DO NOT EXIST!”) to keep away from irritating individuals and to remain on the precise aspect of multinational conglomerates. He additionally posts “snacksclusive” information about actual upcoming snacks which were leaked elsewhere on-line, which manufacturers are much less completely satisfied about—some have despatched him cease-and-desist notices.
When Benji comes up with an concept for a brand new snack, generally he’ll photoshop it totally, but when he thinks it’s potential he’ll sit down and make it for actual. He has munched on Milkybar-dipped Pringles (“what shop r they in” demanded one commenter) and chomped a Werther’s Unique chocolate bar. He desires of sooner or later making his personal snackfish recipe guide, however the “real dream” could be to have a snackfish dropped at life by an organization. “That would be so cool—some dumb flavor that I’ve thought of, and then suddenly everyone gets to try it.”
Finally, clear ketchup and lemon Nutella would possibly by no means exist, and snackfishing in all probability received’t make Benji wealthy or well-known—he hasn’t actually made any cash from his account. Nonetheless, he doesn’t actually thoughts. “I don’t want it to feel like a job; I love doing it,” he says, noting that his “day is numbers,” so creating pretend meals affords a artistic outlet. “For me it’s just a little hobby. As long as I have fun making it, I’m happy.”
This text first appeared within the January/February 2025 version of WIRED UK journal.
