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At a theater near you: Jolly Green Giant

Associated Press/File

NEW YORK — Making frozen vegetables hip is a daunting task, but B&G Foods thinks it has just the guy to do it. It’s bringing back the Jolly Green Giant, after a long hiatus — with a twist. Initially, the campaign will seek to create a sense of mystery by not showing the giant.

B&G, which last year bought the Green Giant brand from General Mills for $765 million, is betting the way to appeal to finicky children and picky parents is with new dishes, an old mascot, and a dash of suspense.

In a minutelong trailer titled “The Giant Awakens,” people look to the sky, mouths agape. Raucous children in a swimming pool fall silent, and grocery bags fall to the ground. Yet the giant is visible only indirectly, through footprints and shadows.

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“It’s well done,” said David R. Just, professor and co-director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs. “By the end of it, it leaves you wondering, ‘So what’s going to happen?’ I think they’ve hit the right note there.”

Dan Kelleher, chief creative officer in New York for Deutsch, the ad agency for Green Giant, said the “cinematic” element provided flexibility about where the ad could be shown. “We were able to air this in movie theaters as a teaser,” said Jordan Greenberg, general manager of the brand at B&G.

“Kids are going to love this because it looks like an ad or a preview for a movie,” Just added.

The giant has also got some updates, acquiring a selfie stick and a Spotify playlist. An Instagram account purports to chronicle a cross-country trip by the giant and his elfin buddy, Sprout. There are sight gags, like the giant doing triceps dips on the St. Louis Gateway Arch, but viewers won’t see his face until next month’s TV ads.

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Parents, of course, might view true heroics as getting their children to gobble vegetables, and B&G has something for them: “The next step is the reason why the giant’s back,” Kelleher said, “to introduce new food products and frozen vegetables.”