Second Annual Peanut-Free Night

Fort Wayne, IN – For the second consecutive season, the Fort Wayne Wizards and Memorial Stadium will be peanut-free for one game. For the Friday, July 13th game at 7:00 p.m. against the Cedar Rapids Kernels, the Wizards will team with FanFare, Inc. to eliminate all peanut items from the concession stands.

The peanut-free menu will allow peanut allergic children and other baseball fans, the chance to attend a Wizards game without having to worry about eating or being around an food item with peanuts in the ingredients or products.

A study by the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, showed that more than four million Americans suffer from some type of peanut allergy and those people, by just being around a peanut or peanut shell, tasting, smelling or touching, can be life threatening.

Items included on the menu that will not be available are peanuts, M&M’s, Snickers, Cracker Jacks, Crunch Bars and Drumsticks. Any other item relating to peanuts and treenuts will also not be available for purchase before, during or after the game.

“Children and people who have this allergy, this is a new experience” Ely said. “The opportunity provided by the Wizards will allow people the chance to do something they have never done before because of all the exposure at a baseball stadium. This will help them enjoy America’s pastime and other events because a lot of people can’t attend. This is a chance to promote the peanut allergy awareness to many people.” (team web site)

While I have other questions (like why I never heard of peanut allegies when I was a kid) this is a really interesting promotion by the Wizards.  As noted it gives people with the allergies a totally new experience (going to a game without facing a breakout).  While the percentage of people effected is noted to be about 1.1% of the population (details) you might assume that’s too small a percentage to build a promotion around.  However this promotion excludes no one (unless you refuse to watch baseball without Cracker Jacks) and is such a thoughtful connection to this targeted audience.

Add to the goodwill, this will certainly get local media attention and there are easy and powerful sponsorship opportunites (medical, health, whole foods, etc).  The information you can provide would be very helpful to families and people afflicted.  The community connection of a sports team can be very strong and being an outlet for health information is a good use of that connection.  (Like the Toronto Blue Jay SARS night a few years ago (Best Promotion Honorable Mention)).

My final thought is that I really think they should invite Mr. Peanut to the game for the first pitch….then medivac him out before he causes a chaotic outbreak.

-Cudo

Note:  This has been nominated for a Best of 2007 Award.