Capri Sun Is Replacing Juice Pouches With Water Pouches
Without water fountains, kids going back to school need another way to stay hydrated.
Kids who are (un)lucky enough to return to brick-and-mortar schools will find very different environments than the ones they left last spring. Cafeterias will sit empty, everyone will hopefully be wearing masks, and water fountains will be closed.
To help kids quench their thirst during the school day, Capri Sun took five million of its signature pouches — the premiere high fructose corn syrup delivery system for kids — and filled them with water instead. They’re distributing the pouches free of charge to schools in the Chicagoland area and Granite City, Illinois, where its factory is located.
In lieu of flavors like Pacific Cooler and fruit punch, kids will find nothing but hydrogen and oxygen flavored water. The company pulled this bait-and-switch on kids testing out the water pouches for a cute commercial that’s like a Jimmy Kimmel prank but less mean.
The kids in the commercial aren’t fans of the new sugar- and calorie-free concoction, but kids don’t always know what’s good for them. And after a long afternoon of socially distant PE class, we’re betting they’ll be happy to slurp down a water pouch or two.
This idea is reminiscent of the way breweries and distilleries jumped into action to make hand sanitizer when, earlier in the pandemic, there were nationwide shortages. It’s a small but meaningful effort to make the transition — surely the weirdest, scariest back to school season in history — that much easier for students, parents, and teachers.
