Popular snack adds new twist to create fun

Messages will be printed on Pringles with food coloring.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Procter & amp; Gamble Co. soon will print trivia questions and answers on its Pringles snack chips, a move analysts say could be a hit with young people. But one marketing specialist said he thought the idea sounded "icky."
The rollout is to begin with selected retailers at undisclosed locations in June, then be expanded throughout the United States and Canada by August. The edible food-coloring print will be red or blue, with other colors to be available later. The printed potato chips are to sell for the same price as regular Pringles, selling at about $1.29 per canister.
The regular-flavor chips will carry the messages, with P & amp;G planning to also offer the printed messages within a year on reduced-fat Pringles chips.
"We think kids are going to love it," said Jamie Egasti, Procter & amp; Gamble's vice president for North American snacks. "It's a great way to add fun to the lunch."
The trivia questions will be drawn from Hasbro Inc.'s Trivial Pursuit Junior game intended for children 8 and older. The toy maker, based in Pawtucket, R.I., is P & amp;G's partner in the printed-chips venture, which has been in the making about two years.
Mixed reactions
Jack Trout, president of Trout & amp; Partners, a marketing strategy firm in Greenwich, Conn., said he can see the appeal for children but still questioned how successful the product will be.
"It's a gimmicky idea. Will kids eat more Pringles because there's messages on it? Maybe. Will it become a talking point among kids? Maybe," Trout said. "It's a strange idea. To me, it brings a lot of strange perceptual baggage along with it -- 'They're running my potato chips through a printing press.' That's kind of icky."
Actually, P & amp;G will send the chips along a conveyor belt under something similar to an inkjet printer that uses food coloring to spray on the trivia messages at high speed. Each chip in a package will have a different message, since test panels of children and mothers told P & amp;G marketers that duplicate messages in one box wouldn't be interesting, Egasti said.
"I think it'll be a real hit with young people," said William Steele, an analyst with Banc of America Securities who follows P & amp;G. "If they have hip messages on chips, the consumer could really go for it."
It is possible that the chips could someday be printed with advertisements, although no such decision has been made, Egasti said.
Appealing to kids
The first batch of the printed Pringles to be released in June will display "fun facts," "animal facts" and jokes from the public domain. The question is printed on the chip, and the answer is on the same side, but printed upside down.
Some possible questions and answers from this batch: What Shakespeare play is about the summer solstice? "Midsummer Night's Dream." Or: What region of the U.S. is the most densely populated? The northeast.
The chips to be marketed in August will contain questions and answers from the Trivial Pursuit Junior game.
Pringles chips, introduced in the early 1970s, are sold in 140 countries and are one of the P & amp;G brands that achieve $1 billion in annual sales. Egasti declined to reveal the company's sales projections for printed Pringles.
They are to be made at P & amp;G's Pringles plant in Jackson, Tenn., which serves North America. The technology isn't available yet at the Pringles plant in Mechelen, Belgium, which serves western Europe and Asia, Egasti said.
P & amp;G worked with its suppliers to develop the food printing technology and plans to apply for various patents, Egasti said.
Jim Gawley, vice president of business development for the Food Institute, a trade organization in Elmwood Park, N.J., said he couldn't think of a similar product. Pringles chips in various colors hit the market last year.
General Mills Inc. sells a Fruit Roll-Ups product that can be pressed to the skin to leave a tattoo before the consumer eats it.