Be on the alert as SpongeBob, Dora the Explorer, Blue's Clues and The Backyardians will be surfacing at your local grocery store coming this fall. In a deal with Grimmway Farms, these lovable characters will be gracing the front of packages of 1.6 oz. single servings to 5 lb. bags of baby cut and peeled carrots. Boskovich Farms made the deal with SpongeBob for bags of spinach. Other Nickelodeon characters will be prominently displayed on the front of bags of oranges, tangerines and clementines from LGS Specialty Sales. Upcoming deals also include using Nickelodeon characters on cartons of lowfat milk.
In the past, poor SpongeBob has had it rough. He has been tagged the Pied Piper of children everywhere-- Leading them down the cartoon-sprinkled path of obesity and inactivity. He has been accused of being homosexual and teaching children tolerance. And all this time I thought he was just a cartoon! With popularity like that, you would think he would figure out what to do about terrorism, homelessness, world hunger, aids and curing cancer. Hey, the Supreme Court is in need of a new judge soon…
Anyway, as a last ditch effort to resurrect poor Bob's image, Viacom International Inc. has agreed to give Bob an overhaul in the PR department—allowing good old Bob to be spokesman for good nutrition everywhere.
An idea worth applauding is Nickelodeon's "Let's Just Play." Nick recently announced the second annual Worldwide Day of Play where the network will go dark on Oct. 1 to engage kids in healthy and fun activities. Now that takes guts on the part of the number one network channel to tell their fans to shut down for the day. In addition to the “Let's Just Play“ campaign, it also awarded more than half-a-million dollars in grants to schools and after-school programs in 2004-2005 to help provide resources that will create and expand opportunities for playing physically. Nickelodeon will also give away an additional $1 million this year. With Nick being seen in 89 million households, it's nice to know that good eating and healthy lifestyles are being promoted by their top characters.
Whether the motives of a few high-powered executives over at Viacom are to give their boy a renovation or not, it doesn’t matter a hill of beans to me. In the end, if kids in this country get up off of the couch, turn off the television and walk outside chewing on a carrot stick, who (in their right mind) can find fault with that??
LP