Can You Say Edamame?

Can You Say Edamame?

New Dora the Explorer, Avatar and The Backyardigans Products Including Edamame, Apples, Pears, and Cherries Set to Hit Grocer's Shelves

Nickelodeon Enters New Multi-Year Licensing Agreements with Borton & Sons, Reichel Foods and Seapoint Farms to Introduce Fruits and Vegetables Featuring Popular Nickelodeon Characters.

Recently Launched Produce Lines with Boskovich Farms, Grimmway Farms and LGS Specialty Sales Expanded to Include Wider Range of Nickelodeon Characters

NEW YORK, July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Nickelodeon, the number-one entertainment brand for kids, today announced Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants branded organic Edamame as part of its expanded character licensing program focused on fresh and packaged fruits and vegetables. Nickelodeon also announced that it has licensed several of its most popular TV characters -- including SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Backyardigans and Blue's Clues -- to an expanded roster of distributors that will begin introducing fruit and vegetable products including pears, apples and cherries with the Nickelodeon characters in supermarkets, beginning in September. The agreements are based on the success of the innovative licensing initiative launched by Nickelodeon in 2005 to encourage healthier diet and lifestyle choices for kids.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060719/NYW105-ahttp://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060719/NYW105-b )

In Fall 2005, Nickelodeon in partnership with Grimmway Farms, Boskovich Farms, and LGS Specialty Sales, delighted kids, parents and grocers by bringing SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer to the fresh produce aisle on packages of spinach, baby carrots and clementines.

"Bringing SpongeBob and Dora to clementine packaging was an instant hit with consumers and resulted in substantial sales increases. Major grocers sold nearly 30% more clementines based on the appeal of the Nickelodeon packaging," said Luke Sears, President of LGS Specialty Sales, adding that the product is available nationally at retailers including Wal-Mart.

"We introduced SpongeBob baby carrots in Fall 2005 and they clearly attracted new customers to our products with some regional grocers reporting double digit sales gains," said Phil Gruszka, Vice President of Marketing for Grimmway Farms. "We were also excited to see a major national retailer forgo their private label carrots to make room for the SpongeBob branded carrots after customer's shopping bags showed they preferred the fun and healthy crunch of SpongeBob."

Starting this Fall, Borton & Sons will release bulk packaging of fresh apples and pears featuring Nicktoons characters including SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Pablo and Uniqua from The Backyardigans. Borton will also be distributing fresh cherries featuring the same characters in 2007. Also new to market, from Seapoint Farms in January 2007, are 1.5 oz. packages of Dora the Explorer Thaw & Eat Organic Shelled Edamame and 2 oz. packages of SpongeBob SquarePants Thaw & Eat Organic Edamame Pods. Reichel Foods, in August, will launch four SKUs of Nick Stix Carrots and Dip and Apples and Dip featuring SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer.

"Moms will appreciate having Dora's familiar face on Thaw & Eat packages of Edamame as they shop for healthy options to pack in their kids' school lunches," said Laura Cross, President of Seapoint Farms. "We're excited to be working with Nickelodeon, who pioneered bringing popular kids' television characters to fresh produce packaging, in hopes of encouraging kids to eat healthy meals and snacks."

Seapoint's Nickelodeon character branded product will be available at many national supermarket chains and natural foods stores throughout the country.

"We've been looking for innovative ways to make our fresh fruit packaging more kid and parent friendly -- and we're confident that consumers will be thrilled to see our Nicktoon branded pears and apples at their local grocer this Fall," said Frank Davis, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Borton & Sons. "SpongeBob SquarePants and the Nickelodeon characters on our new packaging are adored by kids and respected by parents. We expect they will encourage more shoppers to buy fresh fruits for their families," he said.

"Nickelodeon is proud that our initial efforts to use our characters as a method to encourage the sale of fresh fruits and vegetables, have been so well received by both the grocery industry and the expanding market of health conscious parents," said Sherice Torres, Vice President, Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products. "We broke new ground in the world of licensing and we'll continue to look for opportunities to use our stable of loved characters to encourage healthy food choices," she said.

Using its characters to entice kids to try healthy food alternatives is just one of the ways Nickelodeon has been working to encourage healthy, balanced lifestyles for kids. On-air, the network has committed $30 million and 10% of its air to health and wellness messaging.

Nickelodeon is currently in its fourth year of its award-winning pro- social initiative, "Let's Just Play." In November 2005, "Let's Just Play" entered into a partnership with The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a joint initiative of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association, to combat the spread of childhood obesity. The three organizations combined forces on a comprehensive media and public awareness campaign, encouraging young people to engage in healthy and active lifestyles. Nickelodeon is using its multimedia platforms and the "Let's Just Play" campaign to reach millions of young people across the country and to spread the message of the Healthier Generation movement.

In April 2006, Nickelodeon and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation launched the Let's Just Play Go Healthy Challenge, a five month long miniseries on Nickelodeon which focuses on four kids' real life struggles and successes in the quest to make their lives healthier. In addition to various public service announcements (PSAs), and grassroots activities, the Let's Just Play Go Healthy Challenge encourages kids around the country to participate. To date, 100,000 kids have signed on to participate in their own Challenge via http://www.nick.com/letsjustplay.

The Let's Just Play Go Healthy Challenge will culminate in a celebration of the kids on-air and all the kids around the nation who have taken part in the movement to get healthy with Nickelodeon's third annual Worldwide Day of Play, where the network goes dark for an afternoon to encourage healthy activity, on September 30. Over the past two years, half-a-million kids have participated in Nickelodeon's Worldwide Day of Play.

Nickelodeon has also awarded approximately $2 million in grants and through its "Let's Just Play Giveaway" to schools and after-school programs to help provide resources that will create and expand opportunities for physical play.

Nick News specials on nutritional literacy have also run on-air, along with a variety of health and wellness PSAs that are introduced throughout the year, including one on the importance of starting the day by eating a balanced breakfast. According to a research study -- Kids, Food and Eating Behaviors - - by Nickelodeon and Cogent Research, only 50% of kids in the U.S. eat breakfast everyday and only 39% of kids eat three meals per day on a daily basis. The network also employs healthy messaging in its Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. Family magazines, and its websites Nick.com and Nickjr.com.

Nickelodeon, currently in its 27th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in 90 million households and has been the number- one-rated basic cable network for eleven consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA)(NYSE:and)(NYSE:VIA.B).

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060719/NYW105-a
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060719/NYW105-b
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
AP PhotoExpress Network: PRN8-9
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Nickelodeon

CONTACT: Jonathan Finn, Nickelodeon, +1-212-846-4082,
Jonathan.finn@nick.com, or Joanna Roses, Nickelodeon, +1-212-846-7326,
Joanna.roses@nick.com

Web site: http://www.nick.com/letsjustplay
http://www.nick.com/
http://www.nickjr.com/

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