"Pickles trump politics"

Though it won’t be on the ballot this March, the campaign for pickle president is underway.

At an event at the Kernersville YMCA, Jenny Fulton of Miss Jenny’s Pickles officially announced her candidacy for pickle president in 2016.

Fulton is now on the campaign trail from North Carolina to Washington D.C., visiting the supermarket that first stocked Miss Jenny’s Pickles on its shelves: Harris Teeter.

“She’s had a working relationship there since the inception of Miss Jenny’s Pickles,” said Clay Timmons, Fulton’s nephew and campaign manager. “It was a pretty easy one, it’s exposure for both sides.”

Timmons said Fulton is quick to make friends and is incredibly altruistic.

“Harris Teeter was happy to lend their place and their name to what we were doing and we’re happy to promote them along the way,” he said.

Fulton’s campaign stops are essentially pickle tastings at Harris Teeter, which Timmons said parallels a politician’s campaign trail.

“Any sort of stump speech or appearance a politician might have, we’re equating that to our pickle tastings. We started there and had that framework worked out,” Timmons said.

Fulton was laid off from her job in the financial sector about eight years ago as a result of the economic downturn. Timmons said pickles were always a passion for her, so with family land and a recipe from her grandmother, she created Miss Jenny’s Pickles.

Fulton said the pickle presidency is designed to bring awareness to her pickle company.

“We don’t have $100 million for marketing or advertising, so you really have to be creative,” she said.

With the help of Concentric, a marketing agency in Charlotte, Fulton decided to embody and shed a positive light on the political arena and economic environment.

“With the pickle movement, I will lead America as your pickle president, to pickle up and being positive,” she said. “It’s a positive campaign. Who would not want to be part of this?”

Fulton designed her platform to create a pickle movement that could inspire.

“As pickle president, I promise to deliver a pickle movement that is going to bring pickle awareness to every American because pickles are good for you. Say the word and you smile,” she said. “My platform is to pull America forward one jar at a time. So when you get your Miss Jenny’s pickles off the shelf, please pull the next jar forward. It’s also to pull your fellow American forward, give them a hand up.”

Timmons said he doesn’t think this campaign is parodying the political process, though.

“I think that we’re just trying to give it a more positive outlook. What Jenny is really all about is positivity. She’s here to give inspiration for what people can do,” he said.

Fulton said the campaign aims to publicize the Miss Jenny’s Pickles brand in a new way.

“The way we look at it is: pickles trump politics,” she said.

While Fulton acknowledges pickles are a fun topic, what she wants is genuine social change and optimism.

“But we also need to lighten up, and I am trying to show people as pickle president that you can be happy, and you can be positive and you can make things happen,” she said.

state@dailytarheel.com