Caffeine-coated Cracker Jacks are going to hit the store shelves soon. Great! Because kids need more excuses to bounce off the walls!
Frito-Lay said a typical two-ounce package contains 70 mg of caffeine. According to the American Beverage Association, the average 8-ounce cup of coffee contains around 160 mg of caffeine.
The coffee-flavored treats - or Cracker Jack on crack, if you're feeling less charitable - are one of the flavors in a new line of "Cracker Jack'd" snacks Frito-Lay has developed. Other flavors include salted caramel, spicy pizzeria, peanut butter and chocolate, and cheddar BBQ. The maker insists that there's no need to fear their kids are going to get "jacked" up on Cracker Jack.
A Frito-Lay spokesperson told Ad Age: "Cracker Jack’d is a product line specifically developed for adult consumers and will not be marketed to children. All marketing for the products will be exclusively aimed at adult consumers, and the package design and appearance are wholly different from Cracker Jack to ensure there is no confusion among consumers. The presence of coffee and the caffeine that comes with it is clearly called out on both the front and back of the package."
True, the packages of Cracker Jack'd are brown and feature a more understated design than the typical red and white packages. At least on visual appeal alone, they're probably not as tantalizing to kids as the regular packages.
Then again, when's the last time telling a kid that something is "for adults only" made them less interested in it?
There's at least market that's sure to go gaga over the new popcorn poppers and have absolutely no problem with them being on the shelves: long-haul truckers.