Girl takes bite out of wild blueberry promotion

BANGOR — Six-year-old Rebecca Olson of Charleston was thrilled to have Gov. Angus King hand her a wild blueberry pie Wednesday afternoon at the McDonald’s Restaurant on Broadway.

Then she read the box. “They say `fresh baked apple pie,”‘ Rebecca said.

“Well, there’s a little sticker on the back,” said David Bell, executive director of the Wild Blueberry Commission Of Maine, trying to defend his group’s promotion of the fruit being used in food products at New England McDonald’s.

Rebecca quietly repeated that the boxes were printed with the words “apple pie.”

“She’s going to get them to change the box before she’s done,” Rebecca’s mother, Doreen Olson, said to people standing nearby.

That was the only marketing hitch in McDonald’s second seasonal promotion for the restaurant’s use of Maine wild blueberries in its food. Last year, they were stirred into pancakes and pies, and sold at restaurants throughout the state. This year, the blueberries also are being mixed into shakes and muffins, and sold throughout New England.

“If all [McDonald’s] stores are encompassing the Maine blueberries, they’ll be in 300 stores,” said Sue Till of Swardlick Marketing Group.

Rebecca didn’t know she and her family would be part of the wild blueberry promotion. She and her brothers, Luke, 4, and Eli, 2, and cousin Thomas Bartlett, 11, of St. Petersburg, Fla., were in town to attend the Bangor State Fair. They heard King would be at McDonald’s, and decided to go there for lunch and meet him for the first time.

Within a few minutes of arriving, they were wearing “Born to be Wild” T-shirts handed out by Bell to more than 15 children. After eating, they were sporting blueberry mustaches and stained chins.

“You know what the governor said?” Thomas asked while grabbing his T-shirt, beginning to repeat the conversation he had with King. “He said to wear this down in Florida.”

Thomas pledged he would don the shirt when he returns home, where, he said, the availability of blueberries is limited compared to Maine.

“We can buy them from a store, but they’re really expensive,” he said. “My mom sometimes gets them, if she’s making a pie, and she usually buys them in a can. Rarely will she buy them in a carton where I can eat them.”

The McDonald’s promotion comes less than a week after King viewed the field irrigation systems in Washington County. The kickoff was in Bangor instead of Down East partly because the restaurant chain and wild blueberry associations could garner greater media exposure in a bigger city, Bell said. Last year’s promotions were in Portland and Ellsworth.

“Blueberries are grown in every county in the state, except Aroostook County,” he said. “We’d like to move it around, there’s no doubt about it. We do really view ourselves as a statewide product, not just that of one county.”

King compared farmers needing irrigation systems to ski resorts operating snowmaking machines: Both industries are dependent on the weather, and if there’s no precipitation, the machinery can save a season financially.

King’s appearances at McDonald’s are becoming as frequent as President Clinton’s, who has been egged by the media and others for his eating habits. “I’m not touching that one,” King said of the comparison. “I’m a regular customer of McDonald’s.”

With that, he turned to Gary Eckmann, owner of the McDonald’s restaurants in Bangor and Brewer. “Do you have any burgers in there?” King asked, nudging his head toward the building as he stood outside during a press conference.

“Yeah, we’ll take care of you,” Eckmann replied. King, however, ate a Filet O’Fish sandwich and a medium-size order of fries.

No soda this time. King drank a Maine wild blueberry shake.