Stikeez returning to Coles to encourage kids to eat more fresh produce
It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but social media is already buzzing with the rumour that Coles plans to relaunch its popular plastic figurines.
First there was Coles Little Shop, then there was Woolworths Ooshies and now Coles is bringing back an old favourite.
Stikeez is returning to the supermarket after first appearing in stores last year.
The miniature versions of fruit and vegetables were part of a promotion with Healthy Kids Association in an effort to influence kids to eat more fresh produce.
Last year customers received one free Stikeez for every $30 spent in store or online. There were 24 to collect.
Each of the figurines came with names like Marie the Mango, Carlo the Cucumber and Ava the Apple and featured tiny arms, legs and faces.
The promotional campaign was credited with Coles’ 2.4 per cent growth for the first quarter of last year, something Coles is hoping to repeat with this year’s iteration.
Mummy blogger Foodie Mumma Ren revealed in a post to her 10,700 Facebook followers that the Stikeez campaign was returning.
It is believed that this year Coles will be introducing a more innovative recycling element to the promotion.
There will also be a new healthy eating program to go alongside the figurines which should please mums who criticised the promotion online.
“I find these everywhere, I even found one down at the river. Bad News!!” said one follower.
“I won’t be getting next lot because the kid trashed them all,” said another.
One of the followers even pledged to shop at competitor Woolworths to get away from the plastic figurines.
“Woolies it is then! Still finding the little choking hazards in odd places. Still trying to bin them,” she said.
Coles could not confirm the post from Foodie Mumma Ren when asked for comment.
Last year the supermarket came under fire for the collectibles being found during beach clean-ups, with environmental group Sea Shepherd criticising the promotion.
Parental groups agreed with Sea Shepherd and questioned the logic of banning single-use plastic bags only to introduce plastic toys.
“I think it is disgusting swapping plastic bags for plastic toys. Yet they see no harm,” one Facebook user said.
It is not the first Coles promotion to be criticised for its plastic usage.
Last year a Change.org petition was set up calling on Coles to get rid of its Little Shop promotion.
The petition received more than 72,000 signatures, but Coles maintained people were not throwing out the collectibles but passing them on.
“Rather than throwing them out, our customer research shows that of the customers who collected minis last year, 94 per cent have either kept them or given them to family or friends who were collecting,” a Coles spokesman said at the time.
Woolworths received a similar backlash for its wildly popular Ooshie campaign.
The Ooshie figures became the hottest collectable late last year, with one rare Simba reportedly sold for $100k.
However, following the backlash Woolworths launched Discovery Garden, a new collectable that ditched the plastic.
The initiative gave Aussies the chance to grow their own herbs, vegetables and flowers.
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