On a recent family trip to Walt Disney World’s EPCOT, my 6 year old was giddy to find that some nice folks were handing out free packs of Go Go Squeez applesauce (no, that’s not a typo. For reasons unknown, there’s no “e” on the end of “Squeez”).
Have you seen this stuff? It’s applesauce, packaged in individual squeeze pouches; shelf stable, extremely portable, no utensils required and mostly healthy. Oh, and it ain’t cheap.
I was happy (free, healthy snacks where it normally costs $48 for a water bottle? Yes, please!) My husband was happy (he loves any sort of giveaway), and kids thought it was awesome.
Then, daughter informs me that the applesauce people said she had to complete an activity. Rats. We were really just there for the free applesauce and then wanted to move on to Spaceship Earth.
But she’s a convincing little kid, so off we went. The activity, which was either the world’s most brilliant or most loony marketing idea, went like this:
- Little kid consumes applesauce.
- Kid hands empty applesauce pouch to Go Go employee.
- Employee cuts the top off the pouch.
- Employee fills the pouch with dirt.
- Employee plants enormous bean seed with “Go Go” logo somehow stamped on the side of it in the pouch.
- Meanwhile, kid happily colors a farm scene on paper strip.
- Employee carefully tapes farm scene around the exterior of the pouch, tapes up the top, and hands the whole thing to parent.
Parent looks mystified. How on earth am I supposed to carry this around EPCOT then transport it home on a plane?
Kid looks delighted. I planted a magic Go Go applesauce bean in a pouch and Dad will carry it home for me where it will sprout into the most amazing plant ever!!
It’s been five weeks since our trip. The pouch made it safely home, the bean plant outgrew its pouch and is now happily living in a pot on the back porch.
So, brilliantly weird marketing idea, or just plain weird?
