Baby Carrots Go Hollywood

By Growing Produce Staff|April 6, 2011

Bolthouse Farms’ baby carrots are now the official snack of the Easter Bunny. The company has partnered with Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment’s Hop, a new comedy which opened in theatres nationwide this week.

In recent months, Bolthouse Farms has undertaken a campaign, dubbed “Eat ‘Em Like Junk Food,” to position baby carrots as the ultimate junk food. The company has claimed a place for baby carrots in the snack world by playfully mocking junk food marketing tactics and by targeting prime junk-food-heavy moments on the national snacking calendar, such as Halloween and the football playoffs.

Now, with the partnership with “Hop,” Bolthouse aims to show how baby carrots represent the ideal movie-viewing snack. “We were honored to be chosen by the Easter Bunny as his official snack,” said Jeff Dunn, CEO of Bolthouse Farms. “He’s a rabbit, so we were up against lettuce, dandelion leaves, celery, and hay. We think he made a wise choice.”

The “Eat ‘Em Like Junk Food” campaign features playfully confrontational tactics that both emulate and mock junk food advertising. Campaign elements include new packaging and in-store initiatives, traditional TV and outdoor media, online and social media as well as school vending. The initial test effort kicked off in September 2010 in Syracuse, New York, and Cincinnati, OH.