Ocean Spray wants to remind consumers that cranberry sauce plays a “big” of a part in holiday traditions, so it unveiled a very big can of sauce in Times Square. For the next three weeks, visitors to Ripley’s Believe it or Not! can take a photo and join a social media conversation about their holiday feasting habits.
The giant can of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce debuted on Thursday at the Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Museum in New York. Prominently displayed in the lobby, this colossal can weighs in at 500 lbs and stands three feet high by two feet wide. Guests are invited to interact with the can by stepping onto the platform and taking photos.
The attraction is made of real cranberry sauce and was assembled in Kenosha, Wisconsin with the rest of Ocean Spray’s products. The brand says that it could feed over 3,000 guests and boasts 57,000 individual cranberries inside.
Canned cranberry sauce is a staple of American holiday cooking. Ocean Spray cited an unknown study in which 76 percent of Americans serve store-bought cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving instead of homemade. Nearly three-quarters prefer their sauce served in the shape of the can and just over half use the imprinted can line as a slicing guide.
Ocean Spray is inviting consumers to share their holiday dinner traditions on social media, especially details about how they consume their signature berries. The brand is asking whether consumers use the can lines embedded in their jellied sauce as a slicing guide or if they just scoop it. Fans can answer #CanLines or #CanScoop on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. The “winner” will be announced by Ocean Spray on Thanksgiving.
Google recently released a visual trends about which holiday foods are searched for most often by US state. When it comes to cranberry sauce, New York is #20 on the list, making this activation a timely one for brand awareness. Cranberry sauce is most popular in Alaska, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Delaware and Kansas, at numbers one through five, respectively.
