Just Fooding Around : Light-Up Lollipops, Dirt Cups and SNOT Mix Eating, Fun

There is one thing most kids would rather do with food than eat it: play with it.

That’s why some savvy marketers are asking themselves: Why not make that a selling point?

Last week--hoping to persuade kids that there’s more to do with Cheerios than eat them--General Mills began mixing Xs along with the familiar toasted oat O’s. With one of the nation’s best-selling cereals in a bit of a sales slump, General Mills has begun promoting four board games on the backs of Cheerios boxes. No surprise, Cheerios are the designated game pieces.

You might call it “interactive” Cheerios.

Indeed, in this age of interactive television, a wave of “interactive foods” is hitting the marketplace. Consider one especially graphic liquid candy: Super Nauseating Obnoxious Treat (SNOT), which squirts out of a plastic dispenser that looks just like a man’s nose. Indeed, all kinds of candies, cereals, cookies and desserts are being promoted more for “play value” than taste. Marketers are cashing in on something that parents have known for years: All food is finger food to kids.

Some skeptics are questioning that sales hook.

“People ought to buy food for its nutritional value, not how high it can bounce,” said Michael Jacobson, director of the Washington-based consumer lobby Center for Science in the Public Interest. “This sounds like desperation on the part of food manufacturers.”

“The logic of marketing has reached a meltdown state,” adds Alex Molnar, professor of education at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. “It’s now devouring childhood.”

For years, smart marketers have tried to help overcome the resistance some children have to eating, “whether with Spaghetti-O’s or alphabet soup,” said Ira Mayer, publisher of the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based newsletter Youth Marketing Alert. Likewise, various makers of animal crackers know that the cookies are played with as often as they are eaten.

But the concept of food as something to play with seems to be reaching new levels. The most recent rave is two lollipops that double as toys. Spin Pops are suckers attached by their sticks to battery-powered gadgets that spin the lollipops around in children’s mouths. Lazer Pops are clear lollipops placed directly over non-edible flashlights which, when the lights are clicked on, resemble laser lights.

The lollipop machinery isn’t even made by a candy company but by a toy firm, Cap Toys Inc. of Bedford Heights, Ohio. Sales of its Spin Pops and Lazer Pops are booming.

Cap Toys executives are baffled by any criticism of their products. “What’s wrong with having a little fun?” posed Jay Tapper, 24, director of Cap Toys’ candy division. “It’s not as if we’re telling kids to not eat their dinner.”

Of course, cereal giant General Mills is telling kids to play games like tick-tack-toe with its Cheerios cereal before eating it. “We’re hoping parents will get involved and play the games with their kids,” said Katherine Newton, a company spokeswoman.

Food giant General Foods caught on to the interactive food trend in 1990 when it started promoting Jell-O “Jigglers”--concentrated Jell-O products shaped like dinosaurs or holiday ornaments that can be held in the hand and jiggled.

Last year, General Foods introduced “Snacktivities”--which one spokeswoman described as “fantasy activities that bring moms and kids together” because it often requires the assistance of a parent to make the concoctions. “Dirt Cups,” a promotion aimed at young boys, featured a mixture of chocolate pudding, Cool Whip, cookie crumbs and gummy worms. The object: to make it look as if the worms are crawling out of the dirt.

Kool-Aid recently sold “Great Bluedini,” promoted to children on the basis of how the green crystals “magically” turn blue when poured into water. Even the makers of Oreo cookies aren’t promoting taste, but rather the “magic” in twisting the cream-filled cookies open.

Youth marketing experts suggest it might not be all fun and games. “Kids want their food and candy to entertain them just like their Nintendo,” said Bob Horne, senior vice president at the New York youth consulting firm Kid Think Inc. “But most marketers know there could be a parental backlash.”

But kids seem to love the stuff.

“I like to play with food a lot,” said 7-year-old Jesse Mayer, who lives in Brooklyn and who sees all kinds of products aimed at children, in part because his father, Ira, publishes the Youth Marketing Alert newsletter. Despite all the new interactive foods on the block, Jesse’s favorite is still Alpha-Bits cereal. “I try to get a word on the spoon before I eat it,” Jesse said. Two of his favorite words to eat: mom and dad .

Dad doesn’t mind. “I’m into the tactile end of food,” Ira said. “If we somehow got kids to play with their vegetables, that would be great.”

Briefly . . .

The Los Angeles agency Fotouhi-Alonso has picked up the creative portion of the estimated $4-million ad business for Smart & Final. . . . A dozen agencies are pitching for the $1.5-million account of the Volvo Dealers Assn. of Southern California. . . . Toluca Lake-based Miller Group has been hired by Annabelle’s Candy Company of Hayward, Calif., to build brand recognition in Southern California of its Big Hunk candy bar. . . . Chiat/Day executives insist the Venice agency is not for sale, even though it is consolidating its Venice operations into a single landmark building--which is also said to be for sale--and two trade magazines have recently linked it to merger talks with Omnicom Group; Foote, Cone & Belding, and even Creative Artists Agency. . . . Westlake Village-based Kielhorn & Associates has been tapped by Arcadia-based J.T. Posey Co. to develop ads for a new electronic product.