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[Trumann Democrat]
Trumann, Arkansas ~ Thursday, January 8, 2009
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Sprinkle girls win national ad contest

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Savanna, Makayla and Elizabeth Sprinkle were watching "America's Got Talent" last July when a commercial caught their eye.

Kraft Crackers was looking for entries from the public for homemade commercials to promote their new cheese product.

Mom Dana Sprinkle said when the girls saw the commercial they immediately wanted to enter.

"The girls said 'hey, mamma, let's enter that. Let's make a video. We can make one of those,'" Dana Sprinkle said. "I said, 'well, sure.' And we did it."

Last month the girls were notified by the company that they had won first place in the "America's Got Talent" Kraft Macaroni and Cheese "Completely Crackers" contest and that their winning DVD could be used in a future Kraft Foods commercial.

To enter the contest, the girls had to make a DVD of themselves doing something "completely crackers."

"It was kind of spur of the moment," Dana said. "We didn't really plan it out a whole lot. One day when they were going out to play on our little playground I had a video camera and said let's work on that a little bit and we just kind of acted out the three flavors of crackers. And since they were three girls they each did a flavor."

The whole thing started off with an innocent enough question. Elizabeth,5, asked her mother "What is cheddar anyway?" Then after hearing the explanation, Elizabeth looked at her mother and said 'Why don't you just say cheese?'

Sprinkle said she knew right then that the girls were on to something.

"It was funny when she asked me that question because she is just so used to just plain cheese," Dana said. "So we used that. It was just a genuine question that she asked. It was so cute."

The sisters then sang and danced about the three flavors: cheddar, mild cheddar and white cheddar.

Elizabeth closed the two minute commercial by saying "Cheddar all the way, baby!"

Sprinkle was notified by mail that the girls had won and she ended up calling the company to make sure she understood what had happened.

"They were excited," Sprinkle said. "We got the package off the front porch. We were gone that day and it was a FedEx overnight priority package. I started reading it and they started screaming "we won! Yay!" We were surprised that three little hillbilly girls had won."

Company officials told her that it was a big accomplishment for the girls because the company received thousands of entries.

"The promoter told us that they need to list this on their resume and notify their talent manager because it could open the doors to many more opportunities for them," Sprinkle said.

The girls are definitely not camera shy. Each of the three have won numerous beauty pageants across the region including a win last Saturday in the "America's Fabulous Faces" which earned them a trip to the state finals.

"They just love to enter stuff," Sprinkle said.

Sprinkle said she signed the release forms for Kraft to use the girl's video and likeness but isn't certain yet what the company plans to do with it.

"I've signed all the copyrights and all that. It's one of those things where we just don't know. They could and can use it. They might use it. They may use it a year from now. We don't really know," Sprinkle said. "But they want to use it. We don't know how they are going to incorporate it yet."

But if Hollywood or Madison Avenue advertising executives call, the girls would definitely be interested in doing commercials, she said.

"They are excited about that," Sprinkle said. "It would be great. They love to act and model and get their pictures made."

The girls were presented with a $1,000 check for the winning entry.

Sprinkle said the money is in a saving account for the time being, but the girls are already thinking about how to spend it.

"They think they can buy cars and everything," Sprinkle said. "I told them it's $1,000. It's a bunch, but it's not that much. At first they just all wanted to go to Wal-Mart. They have all wanted these "American Girl" dolls for a while and they are pretty expensive. So they are thinking about that and tons of things. They take a lot of classes at the Foundation of the Arts. So we may take it and put it toward more classes and things like that."

The girls are home schooled and are active members of the Christian Home Educators of Northeast Arkansas and have taken dance, acting and art classes at the Foundation of Arts in Jonesboro and are very active in pageants.



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