• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, August 22, 2017

Startling sights are par for the course in Times Square. But even jaded New Yorkers will find it hard to ignore the three-story-high pyramid made of 48,485 pounds of “sugar” that’s on display there today. 

The pyramid is surrounded by statues of children made of “sugar” – actually white sand, used in place of sugar to avoid attracting bugs and varmints.

Both are part of a one-day-only installation/sampling opportunity to promote Kind Snacks’s new, no-sugar-added Fruit Bites. 

The pyramid represents the number of pounds of added sugar consumed every five minutes, on average, by all U.S. children. The statues each weigh 64 pounds, representing the 64 pounds of added sugar consumed by the average eight-year-old U.S child in a year. 

Many of Kind’s other snack products do contain sugar, but the brand says it sees an opportunity in better-for-you fruit snacks. 

Nine out of the 10 leading fruit snacks have added sugar as their first ingredient (and the unnamed “leader” has corn syrup and sugar as its first ingredients), according to Kind. 

The company cites IRI data showing a slowdown in the $963-million category — with sales down 3.5% across the U.S. multi-outlet sector and down 5.6% in the food channel during the 52 weeks ending July 17 — and posits that parents’ growing awareness of that sugar content is responsible. 

The Magnetic Collaborative agency created the Times Square installation.

Kind is using PR and social media — including an in-house-created time-lapse video of the installation’s set-up — to promote the activation.