Jolly Green Giant Is Getting Fresh

With business turning ho, ho, hum, the Jolly Green Giant is stomping from the valley of the cans into the supermarket fresh produce aisle.

The company’s familiar name and leafy logo will appear on packages of fresh sweet corn, oranges, apples, pears, celery, celery hearts, onions and sweet potatoes “From the Valley of the Jolly--Ho, Ho, Ho--Green Giant,” making it one of the nation’s more agriculturally diverse marketers.

The company is turning over a new leaf, spokesman Terry Thompson explained, because “we obviously think that fresh is an appropriate, interesting and potentially profitable category.”

And just in case consumers want to be in direct touch with the big guy in green, Green Giant is sprouting an 800-number on its fresh produce packages “to keep close contact with consumers.”