Lettuce promotion a "hit" with the media

Lance Jungmeyer chiming in ...

The Washington Times touts Tanimura & Antle's iceberg lettuce/baseball tie-in for Father's day in this story.

If you haven't heard about this, the lettuce shipper has adorned iceberg lettuce cello packs with a baseball motif, complete with faux seams on the pack. Offered is a recipe for iceberg wedge salad. Sounds good to me.

The clever promotion is not without its critics. The article cites Phil Lempert of www.supermarketguru.com, who says: "I can imagine if a lot of kids are bringing their fathers a head of lettuce for Father's Day, they're not going to be very happy," he said.

If you ask me, produce marketers need to reach out more to men, who increasingly are handling more and more shopping duties for the family. Remember, if men aren't buying produce when they shop, the family isn't eating produce at home.

Maybe some marketers should rethink promotions that rely so heavily on reaching the typical 18-39 year-old mother of two.