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- Growing up in the '70s, companies like Green Giant offered prizes to kids in exchange for a certain number of labels from their products.
- My family made this a project, eating canned vegetables until we had enough labels to get a Green Giant kite.
- Putting away those labels taught me two important money lessons: how to save up my currency to get the things I wanted, and the value of delayed gratification.
On May 31, Dum-Dums lollipops ended its wrapper exchange promotion where kids (or big kids) could send in a set amount of wrappers in exchange for merchandise. The first toy offered by the company back in 1953 was a rubber baseball and wastebasket for 15 wrappers and 15 cents. In the early years of the promotion, footballs, gadgets, and basketballs were on the list of prizes.
I'm sad to see the promotion go, because companies like Dum-Dums are partially responsible for teaching me about finances.
My Green Giant education
In the '70s, cereal brands and other companies had similar promotions where you could save their proof of purchases or labels and send them in with a few coins for a toy or prize. When I was in grade school, the company Green Giant would send an oversized kite with the company's mascot, The Jolly Green Giant, on the front in exchange for labels and a few coins.
Saving the labels from their vegetables became a family project of ours. When my dad retells the story, he says that my brothers and I had to eat a lot of canned vegetables to earn those labels. When we had the required number, our dad sent them to Green Giant along with some change, and we waited the six to eight weeks to receive our kite.
I learned 2 financial skills: saving and delayed gratification
Saving labels, a type of currency, taught me the principle of money management. There was little difference between saving that way and saving for a toy I was dreaming of playing with. The discipline and time required to receive the kite were similar to saving my allowance each week for a pink record player or a new Barbie.
Saving the labels also taught me about delayed gratification. Often it took my family several weeks or longer to buy the products necessary to get the number of wrappers or other proof of purchases required. Back then, it also took six to eight weeks for processing and shipping.
Saving and delayed gratification are both backbone principals to a life of good financial habits and management. If I save a portion of each paycheck, and I wait to buy things until I have enough saved, I either realize I don't need the product, or I avoid financing it and save the interest fees. These were valuable lessons, indeed.
Finally getting our prize
Although marketing to kids and treating them as consumers has always been controversial, I am thankful that companies targeted me and my demographic with these promotions.
After eating all of our vegetables, saving labels, and waiting weeks for our prize, the big day came. The large plastic kite with the friendly green beast arrived. My dad put it together for us, and my brothers, my dad, and I went out into the field to fly it. Within a few minutes after running and letting out the string, it was off the ground and soaring high. Shortly after it started to rise, it got caught up in a wind gust that broke the line, and we all watched as it went over the hill and out of our sight. So, I learned something about disappointment, too — and dealing with that is another life skill that has been valuable over the years.
I hope Dum-Dums and other companies will create more, not less, of these types of promotions, so another generation of kids can eat their vegetables or lollipops and learn the basics of financial planning.
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