The New York Times reports that the Girl Scout cookie box is getting a major makeover — for the first time in more than a dozen years — to better tell the story of what girls learn from selling cookies.
“It’s a better vehicle to tell the story that we are the best leadership program for girls in the world,” said Anna Maria Chávez, the organization’s chief executive, who was appointed as head of the 2.2-million-member organization last year. Together with the first cookie box overhaul since 1999, the Girl Scouts will begin the multimedia “This Is What a Girl Can Do” campaign with public service announcements on radio and television, print ads and new and refreshed Web sites.
Cookie sales have increased more than 3 percent in each of the last three years. Last year, 214 million boxes were sold, for a total of $787 million, up from 207 million boxes and $760 million the year before.
Girls decide how they will spend part of the proceeds, which can be for troop projects, activities or trips. The new box lists the five skills that girls learn from the Girl Scout cookie program: goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics.
“It’s more than handing over a box,” said Mirna Hernandez, the cookie program’s brand manager. “The message is that she’s created a plan, interacting with customers and working as part of a team.”
The back of each box, which ties together with the front photo, has a Girl Scout sash with some badges girls can earn. The Thin Mints package, for example, shows girls gardening, and the back features the junior gardener badge, earned when scouts learn how to grow plants, and the financial literacy badge, for younger scouts. to learn about money. The back also shows the gold award, the Girl Scout equivalent of the Eagle Scout award for boys.