Move over Wheaties-Famous signs Red Sox to breakfast roster

New York foodco Famous Fixins has inked a deal with Major League Baseball Properties and the Boston Red Sox to produce a breakfast cereal that will feature the team’s players and logo on the packaging. Monster Crunch (the name’s a wink to the Green Monster, the famed outfield wall in Boston’s Fenway ballpark) retails for US$2.99 a box, and will begin shipping to supermarkets throughout New England later this month. Crunch marks the second licensed MLB cereal for Famous Fixins; last year the company struck a deal with the New York Mets to manufacture Amazing Mets’ Frosted Flakes, which have sold 20,000 units to date.

Globetrotters shooting for licensing comeback

Basketball’s traveling court jesters the Harlem Globetrotters are hoping the occasion of their 75th anniversary this December will help get them back into the licensing game. (Currently, the team has only one licensee on board, the George F. Cran Company, which produces HG novelty globes.) In support of that effort, the troupe’s licensing division, Phoenix-based Globetrotters Properties, will be mounting a full-court press on potential licensees this summer. GP president Colleen Lenihan says she will focus on signing companies to create merchandise across all major kid categories, including apparel, video games and toys. To commemorate the team’s 75th birthday, GP also plans to release a best-of video featuring highlights of the team’s performances, which it will sell at venues where the team plays and via its Web site (harlemglobetrotters.com). On the promotional front, starting next month Kraft will feature lenticular collectible card premiums on jars of Miracle Whip showing the Globetrotters in action.