Growing up, Vlasic was always the pickle brand of choice in my household. I don’t know if it was because they were cheap, violently pickle colored (green), or just my dad’s favorite, but Vlasic was always the go-to. And because I am sharing that with you all, I feel like I also need to share that I always assumed it was called Vlasic because the bird mascot’s name was Vlad and he’s just a classic pickle-y guy—hence, Vlasic. Turns out they are actually just called Vlasic because the company founder’s last name was Vlasic and the bird is a stork (named Jovny?) who holds pickles like cigars. Now, Jovny has a new prop. He’s the mascot for a new pickle-flavored, cheese ball-esque snack and on the packaging he’s holding not a pickle, not a baby, but a pickleball. That’s because this new snacky little morsels are called Vlasic Pickle Balls.
What are Vlasic Pickle Balls? Do they have anything to do with pickleball? Will they be a hit or is Vlasic courting disaster?
Vlasic Pickle Balls appear to be cheese puffs (the ball-shaped ones, not the curvy kind) but with pickle dust instead of cheese dust. They are violently green perfect little spheres and, hoooo boy, do I want to give them a try when they hit store shelves nationwide in late November.
Do they look like Shrek-themed packing peanuts? Absolutely. Does that make me want to try them even more than I already did? Um, yeah. That said, all we know about how they’ll taste is that the front of the bag says “big crunch” and we know what Vlasic dill pickles taste like (pickle-y). Personally, I am already imagining what these would be like with a pulled pork sandwich or, let’s face it, any sandwich. And, yes, Vlasic is definitely attempting to capitalize on the popularity of pickleball (the sport) with their Pickle Balls (the snack). The packaging has a big ol’ pickleball paddle on it, and our boy Jovny the Stork is holding a pickleball, which is suspiciously close in color to the Pickle Balls also pictured on the bag.
According to their Twitter page, Vlasic has done some pickleball-related partnerships in the past so this isn’t so surprising of a move. Plus, I mean it is pickles. A pickle company’s gunsta get on the pickleball train—and that’s just science.
