“We have applications coming in every day now,” said Meg Miller, spokeswoman for the Produce Marketing Association. So far, about 25 companies have signed the licensing agreement to use Sesame Street branding on their products. Bolthouse Farms will be launching Eat Brighter-branded baby carrots in January 2015. In the late spring, East Coast Fresh, a produce packager and distributor in Maryland, introduced pre-cut fruits and vegetables labeled with Sesame Street characters. The initiative was announced in October 2013 and the first products hit the shelves earlier this year.
“We know that telling people to eat healthier doesn’t work, but inspiring them emotively and using some of the tactics of the junk food industry … is a much more successful strategy,” said Todd Putnam, chief commercial officer of Bolthouse Farms, another produce supplier signed up to use the Sesame Street brand on its packaging. Such deals would usually be worth millions of dollars to Sesame Workshop, according to Putnam, who is on the task force that designed the program.
CARTOON MAKING FOOD MONSTERS LICENSE
Sesame Workshop will license characters such as Big Bird, Elmo and Cookie Monster to fruit and vegetable suppliers free of charge for two years. The goal of the initiative is to compete with producers of cookies and chips by deploying the same marketing strategies these foods use. “We are particularly excited to be a part of this initiative with PMA and Sesame Workshop because it offers our industry the opportunity to join together to, hopefully, spur greater change than any one of our companies could effect on their own,” said Kevin Fiori, vice president of sales and marketing for Sunkist. Sunkist, one of the country’s largest citrus brands, joins the effort in late October, launching a line of navel oranges and mandarins in Sesame Street-themed packaging.
CARTOON MAKING FOOD MONSTERS TV
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind the children’s TV show, and the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) have partnered to create Eat Brighter, an initiative aimed at curbing childhood obesity. Cookie Monster wants your children to cut down on his namesake treats and start snacking on baby carrots and clementines instead.
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