Kraft Singles Pop Up Baseball Cards: An Idea That Captured the Minds of Kids in the 1980s and 1990s

In the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, Kraft Foods produced a unique line of baseball cards inserted into packages of their processed American cheese slices known as Kraft Singles. These weren’t your typical flat baseball cards – they were pop-up cards that would spring to life when opened. The idea was ingenious marketing that captured the attention and imagination of children and baseball card collectors alike.

While baseball cards had been around for over 100 years by this point, Kraft took the concept to another level by making the cards interactive. When young fans (and players of all ages) opened a pack of Kraft Singles, they were greeted not just by a flat piece of cardstock with a player photo and stats, but by a miniature 3D statue of the ballplayer that would pop up when the foil wrapper was removed.

Some key details on these memorable Kraft Singles Pop Up Baseball Cards:

Production began in 1988 and continued through the late 90s before being discontinued. They enjoyed their peak popularity in the early to mid-90s.

Dozens of different players were featured over the years from all MLB teams, including superstars and forgettable role players. The selection tended to focus on current players each season.

The cards were made of stiff heavy paper/cardboard with die-cut shapes that would spring up into a popping motion. Colors and designs varied but always prominently displayed the team logo.

Once popped, they stood proudly about 2-3 inches tall in a miniaturized version of the player’s batting or fielding pose. This allowed for a novelty display element that regular cards couldn’t match.

As an added bonus for collectors, later shipments in the 90s included dual cards featuring two players popping up side by side for an exhibition lineup look.

Naturally, the incentive was to buy more Kraft Singles with the chance to complete a full team or player collection through repeat purchases.

While the nutritional quality of cheese slices left something to be desired, there’s no denying this was a marketing move that captured kids’ attention. For a generation of baseball and trading card fans who grew up in the late 80s through 90s, the Kraft Singles Pop Ups held a special place. They represented both the popcorn-like joy of the surprise element and being able to proudly show off their collected players in 3D miniature form.

Not only did it move product for Kraft by driving repeat cheese purchases among its target youth demographic, it also helped introduce many American children to the world of MLB during baseball’s peak popularity period. For Kraft and for the fans, it was a classic win-win gimmick that helped expand both businesses. Like baseball cards The pop ups acted as more than just a fun diversion – they fostered knowledge of the game and players.

All good things must come to an end. After nearly a decade of success, Kraft quietly discontinued the popular insert series in the late 1990s as collector demand had been satisfied and baseball cards began declining in cultural relevance compared to newer forms of entertainment. The final known production year appears to be 1997.

While the Kraft Singles Pop Ups are now a relic of the past, their legacy lives on in the childhood memories of a generation. For many, just the mere thought of cracking open those iconic foil wrappers and seeing their favorite players spring to life is sure to bring a smile. It marked a creative high point in the history of baseball card promotions and specialty inserts that has yet to be truly replicated. Through leveraging packaged goods marketing synergies with the national pastime, Kraft created promotions that proved as highly collectible as they were delicious.

Since emerging on the grocery store shelves in the 1920s, Kraft singles have become an iconic part of American culture and cuisine. What is perhaps less known is that in the 1950s and 1960s, Kraft experimented with including baseball cards inside the wax paper wrapping of their processed cheese singles. Known colloquially as “Kraft singles baseball cards,” these innovative promotional items represent an overlooked intersection between two pillars of mid-century American popular culture – cheap, easily accessible snacks and our pastime sport.

The idea to include baseball cards with Kraft singles was conceived in 1953 by a marketing executive named Chester Landis. Landis realized that baseball card collecting was growing exponentially among American youth, but accessing cards often required purchasing expensive packs of gum or cigarettes. He proposed that including a single baseball card randomly inserted inside Kraft single wrappers would be an inexpensive novelty that could drive sales, especially among children.

Initially skeptical, Kraft’s executives greenlit a small test run of “Kraft singles baseball cards” in Chicago and Milwaukee during the 1954 baseball season. The results were hugely successful – Kraft sales jumped 20% in the test markets as kids eagerly searched wrapper after wrapper hoping to find cards of their favorite players. Due to the huge popularity, Kraft launched the promotion nationwide for the 1955 season. Over the next decade, tens of millions of baseball cards would be distributed through Kraft singles.

Most Kraft singles baseball cards featured active major leaguers, with the most popular players receiving higher card distribution numbers. Stars of the 1950s like Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron were commonly found cards. But more obscure journeymen and lesser stars also received cardboard representations. The simple, uniform design of Kraft singles cards differed greatly from the elaborate illustrations seen on packs from Topps and Bowman. Scanned at a low resolution, many Kraft card images resembled blobs more than baseball players. Yet for children at the time, the novelty of finding any MLB card inside a snack wrapper was endlessly exciting.

Collecting Kraft singles cards also took America’s youth outside on sunny weekend afternoons, often with friends in tow. Neighborhood kids would gather to swap, examine, and appreciate the unique cards as they satisfied cravings with processed cheese slices. In this way, Kraft helped foster social bonds through its grassroots baseball memorabilia promotion long before the rise of internet forums brought collectors together online. And although the images weren’t always crystal clear on Kraft cards compared to pricier premium sets, their scrappy design embodied Midwestern virtues of family, community, and accessibility to the national pastime.

Despite the promotion’s immense popularity, mounting criticism arose through the late 1950s that Kraft was using baseball cards as a “gimmick” to market unhealthy snack food primarily to children. The advent of modern nutritional sciences, combined with America’s growing health consciousness, led some medical organizations to raise concerns over processed cheeses’ high sodium levels and saturated fats. This put pressure on Kraft to modify or eliminate the baseball card program. Licensing deals with MLB players’ unions grew stronger throughout the decade, requiring Kraft to pay higher fees per card used.

By 1965, Kraft had quietly phased out including baseball cards with their singles. While the company continued packaging cheese in waxy paper for decades after, part of the innocent charm and excitement surrounding Kraft singles had disappeared for children of the latter 20th century. But today, vintage Kraft baseball cards from the 1950s and 60s live on as treasured pop culture artifacts, reminding us of a time when the peanut butter and jelly sandwich wasn’t the only humble American lunchbox staple that could contain a surprise major leaguer inside. Though imperfect and makeshift by today’s standards, Kraft singles baseball cards helped spread the gospel of the national pastime ubiquitously throughout millions of American homes in their print run’s heyday. Their charm lies not in their print quality or card stock, but rather in capturing a moment when baseball felt as bountiful and easy to access in rural driveways as a slice of processed cheese.

In closing, while largely forgotten today, the experimentation of inserting baseball cards inside Kraft single wrappers in the mid 20th century represents an inventive sponsorship that broadened the reach of America’s pastime while fueling the nickel-and-dime snack brand’s own success. Though concerns over nutrition led to the promotion’s end, its cultural impact introduced baseball fandom to untold numbers of ordinary American families through a subtly exciting novelty. The story of Kraft singles baseball cards shines a light on creativity in commercial sports partnerships of yesteryear while reminding us of affordable forms of summertime fun that united communities through our shared love of the national game.