"Buy
me some peanuts and Cracker Jills" could be the new tune in baseball
stadiums this upcoming season.
Today,
Purchase-based PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay subsidiary announced that after more than
125 years as one of sport’s most iconic snacks, Cracker Jack is adding a new
face to its roster with the introduction of Cracker Jill.
While the
snack uses the same caramel-coated popcorn recipe as the classic Cracker Jack,
the new packaging features five different representations of women on the
special-edition bags. The company says it created Cracker
Jill as a way to celebrate women who break down barriers in sports.
Cracker
Jill will be available at the start of this year’s baseball season in
professional ballparks across the country and through a donation of $5 or more
to the Women’s Sports Foundation. In addition, PepsiCo will donate $200,000 to
the foundation. “Cracker Jack has been part of sports for over a century, as
records were made and rules changed. We’ve been so inspired by how girls and
women are changing the face of the game, so in this spirit we introduce Cracker
Jill to show girls that they’re represented even in our most iconic snacks,”
says said Tina Mahal, vice president of marketing at
Frito-Lay North America.
And what
about the iconic line of “buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack” in the
classic “Take Me Out to the Ballgame?” They have a new twist on that as
well. Cracker Jack has partnered with award-winning artist Normani to reimagine
this iconic song, updating the lyrics to “Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jill/
No one can stop you if you have the will/ So let’s root, root, root for a
girl’s dream,” read some of the lines. The tail of the lyrics also received a
new spin with lines like “We’re adding our face to the game/ And we’ll run,
throw, with never a doubt/It’s a new, ball game.”