Cracker Jack ditches toys, offering mobile games instead - Los Angeles Times
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Cracker Jack ditches toys, offering mobile games instead

Cracker Jack for sale at a spring game in Peoria, Ariz., on March 3, 2010.

Cracker Jack for sale at a spring game in Peoria, Ariz., on March 3, 2010.

(Charlie Neibergall / Associated Press)
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Even Cracker Jack is trying to go digital.

The baseball game snack staple will no longer have a physical toy in the box, opting instead for a prize sticker with a QR code that can be scanned to play one of four mobile games.

"The new Prize Inside allows families to enjoy their favorite baseball moments through a new one-of-a-kind mobile experience," Haston Lewis, senior director of marketing at Frito-Lay, said in a statement last week. "With this redesign and new mobile game experience, the Cracker Jack brand embraces a modernized, young-at-heart attitude while keeping that treasured feeling of childhood wistfulness."

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Cracker Jack's branding will also get a makeover with a redesigned logo and packaging, Frito-Lay said.

This isn't the first time that the Cracker Jack toys have changed. Since they were introduced in 1912, prizes have ranged from tiny books to decoder rings, temporary tattoos and baseball cards. And there are even enthusiast organizations, like the Cracker Jack Collectors Assn., that are dedicated to collecting the prizes from the boxes.

But not everyone was pleased about these most recent changes.

But some didn't seem to mind the change.

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