DATE: Wednesday, October 8, 1997            TAG: 9710080435

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   40 lines

PEPSI GOES NUTS WITH PEANUT FESTIVAL LABEL

You won't see them at Norfolk's Harborfest, Virginia Beach's Neptune Festival or the Chesapeake Jubilee.

Peanut Fest, the four-day Suffolk party that begins Thursday, is the first Hampton Roads event to be touted on Pepsi cans.

On one side, a silver cube gushing multicolored confetti invites you to ``Go Nuts!'' at the 20th annual festival, which runs through Sunday.

One million of the cans were printed for distribution throughout Virginia, said Ron Lewis, Pepsi unit sales manager at the Suffolk distribution plant.

The promotional cans, printed and filled at the company's bottling plant in Newport News, began appearing on grocery store shelves around the middle of September, Lewis said.

They were distributed as far west as Richmond in vending machines and retail stores.

In Virginia, the promotional method has been used only for the Virginia State Fair and seafood and chicken festivals on the Eastern Shore.

Peanut Fest Chairman Hayes Griffin spent the Fourth of July weekend on the Eastern Shore, where he picked up a can of Pepsi promoting a community event.

Back home, he made some calls to Pepsi. ``The company was very receptive to the idea,'' he said.

The design promotes the entire festival schedule, from the parade that was held downtown last Saturday to the entertainment, carnival, arts and crafts exhibits, rodeo and fireworks.

The festival didn't pay for the promotion. ``This is just something we did for the city of Suffolk,'' Lewis said.

The festival will promote Pepsi and Pepsi products, but vendors will be allowed to sell other brands of drinks. MEMO: COMING THURSDAY

Complete Peanut Fest schedule in The Daily Break ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

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