Charlie Brown hits Wal-Mart’s produce aisle for Halloween

Wal-Mart has hooked up with Wilmington, Delaware’s Produce for Better Health Foundation and United Media to make Halloween a little more nutritious this year. Roughly 1,700 U.S. stores will dress up their produce departments to host a ‘Treat Yourself to Good Health’ event on October 8. Kids who visit the fruit and veggie aisle that day will come away with Halloween activity books and stickers featuring the classic Peanuts characters. Activities include a fruit and vegetable maze, magic tricks involving pieces of produce and a ‘gruesome’ collection of recipes for treats like Roasted Alive Veggie Kabobs. This partnership marks the seventh event Wal-Mart and the Foundation have co-sponsored, and five more are planned for 2006.

Carl2 writers build audience connection on-line with blogs

Most TV shows have supportive websites these days, but few put as much effort into them as the creators of tween toon Carl2. The writing staff at Toronto, Canada’s Portfolio Entertainment have created web diaries (or blogs) for each main character in the show, and they’re updated every week. The dedicated scribes also respond immediately and personally to questions and letters that come in from viewers. For example, one young girl who’s a vegetarian, like the character Skye, wrote in recently to find out what she should be eating to maintain a balanced diet. The site (www.carl2.com) also features traditional components such as games, and in the coming months, visitors will be able to download short show clips onto their cell phones. Portfolio plans to translate the site into major international languages once the show starts selling abroad.