Guff 7: How Not to Eat Ants
“You never know what you’ll like ‘til you give it a chance.”
Three Anteaters Walk Into a Franchise
The Anteater Books started with one picky eater. Now they’re building a world.
Anteaters are pretty picky about some things. Eating ants, for starters. Reading books. Taking baths.
We have evidence.
Macguffin Co. is pleased to introduce How Not to Eat Ants, a children’s picture-book franchise - and more - built around three opinionated anteaters, a chorus of wisecracking ants, and one useful idea:
“You never know what you’ll like, ’til you give it a chance.”
The formula is simple. An anteater announces that he absolutely, positively does not like something. His friends disagree. Excuses are made. Arguments escalate. Ants heckle from the sidelines. Eventually somebody tries something new.
Opinions change. Usually loudly.
That repeatable premise is the engine behind a franchise Macguffin is now developing across books, interactive media, and ancillary publishing.
It Started With Ants
The first title, I Don’t Like to Eat Ants, is available now:
Anteater One has a problem: he doesn’t like eating ants. They’re squishy. They’re sticky. They tickle his tongue.
Anteater Two considers this an existential crisis. Eating ants is, after all, more or less the job description.
A visit to Anteater Three’s Peanut Butter & Jelly Deli changes things. One bite leads to another, and our reluctant eater discovers that trying something new can occasionally be preferable to eating insects.
The series takes that basic mechanism and runs with it. The books are designed as 32-page, rhyming read-alouds for ages 3–7, with hidden ants appearing throughout the spreads to reward repeat readings.
Next comes I Don’t Like to Read Books, followed by I Don’t Like to Take Baths. The objection changes. The world expands. The central idea remains.
And so does Anteater Three, our increasingly busy serial entrepreneur, whose establishments expand from the PB&J Deli to the Burrow of Books and Hot Spring as circumstances require.
From Books to a World
This is where things get interesting from a franchise perspective.
The anteaters aren't being developed as characters who happen to inhabit three books. They're being developed as characters capable of carrying a repeatable “I Don’t Like to…” story platform.
That platform is already moving beyond the core picture-book series.
The Anteaters’ Cookbook takes the characters into the kitchen for the Annual Forest Picnic, with kid-friendly recipes including FANTastic French Fries, Anthill Cake and Sprinkle Celebration Cupcakes. Recipes are paired with character humor, ant activities and hidden recurring characters.
Then there’s The Anteaters’ Cook-Along, a working companion-app prototype that turns those recipes into interactive cooking adventures, including read-aloud instructions, kitchen timers, mini-games, hidden-ant hunts and a picnic progress tracker. The concept is being designed as a kid-safe experience with no accounts, advertising or data collection.
Books lead to cookbooks.
Cookbooks lead to interactive experiences.
Characters lead to more characters.
And a joke about an anteater who doesn’t eat ants starts looking suspiciously like a franchise.
So, Macguffins, Here We Go.
At Macguffin, the point of a Pilot is to find out whether there is enough character, storyline and world to justify taking the next step: developing the property into market-ready IP and pursuing licensing opportunities across media.
We think the anteaters have reached that point.
Macguffin is preparing The Anteater Books for an upcoming investment Offering, subject to the applicable offering process and materials through a registered third-party intermediary.
The objective is straightforward: raise development capital to expand the franchise, complete additional creative assets and take the property to publishing, licensing and multimedia partners.
There will be considerably more GUFF between here and there.
We’ll introduce the books. Show you the characters. Share development work from the cookbook and app. Explain where we think the licensing opportunities live. And, as the Offering approaches, provide information on how interested Macguffins can review the formal materials through the applicable funding portal.
For now, meet three anteaters.
One adventurous.
One stubborn.
One apparently incapable of opening a business that isn't immediately overrun by ants.
We think they're worth giving a chance.
After all...
You never know what you’ll like, ’til you give it a chance.
Testing the Waters: No money or other consideration is being solicited, and if sent in response, will not be accepted. No offer to buy securities can be accepted and no part of the purchase price can be received until an offering statement is filed and only through an intermediary's platform. A person’s indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind.
