MoonPie has created a limited-edition 12-count box of classic chocolate MoonPies in conjunction with the release of “Jimmy,” the biographical drama about the life of actor and World War II veteran Jimmy Stewart, with a portion of sales proceeds going to the USO.
The “Lasso the Moon” boxes are available at Food City, Ingles and select grocery retailers nationwide, as well as at lassothemoonpie.com, while supplies last.
From the checkout lane to the silver screen
The box’s name references Stewart’s iconic scene in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the first film he made after returning from his World War II deployment with the U.S. Army Air Corps. The tie-in runs deeper than packaging: MoonPies make a cameo appearance in the movie, and the USO has been sending the snack cake to service members deployed around the world since World War II.
“We’ve been shipping MoonPies to service members overseas since World War II, so we jumped at the chance to partner with the makers of ‘Jimmy,’ to honor our troops in this way,” said Tory Johnston, VP of sales and marketing at Chattanooga Bakery, the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based maker of MoonPie. “The ‘Lasso the Moon’ special limited-edition box from MoonPie and ‘Jimmy’ honors our military, past and present, veterans and their families.”
A biopic with a snack cake cameo
The film, directed by Aaron Burns, stars KJ Apa as Stewart, who left Hollywood at the height of his career to serve. It follows Stewart from winning an Academy Award for “The Philadelphia Story” to enlisting, flying 20 combat missions over Europe and returning home to face PTSD before starring in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Stewart remained in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, was promoted to brigadier general in 1959 and retired from military service in 1968.
“MoonPie has been providing All-American sweet treats to our military for more than a century. We were honored to include MoonPie’s World War II packaging to help recreate Jimmy’s world in ‘Jimmy,'” said Burns, the film’s director. “For the Chattanooga Bakery to step forward with a special movie-tie inspired box to honor Jimmy Stewart’s legacy just adds to the magic as we head into the Christmas season.”
A century of troop support
Beyond the USO, Chattanooga Bakery works with Friends Of The Troops and the Veterans of Foreign Wars to distribute MoonPies to active-duty troops on bases stateside and overseas, as well as to veterans year round. Founded in 1902, the fifth-generation, family-owned bakery introduced the MoonPie in 1917, and it has been the company’s No. 1 seller since the late 1930s.