Yogi Berra and Beth Lucey, senior brand
manager, with French’s Mustard Man. | WRITERS & ARTISTS SOFTBALL
French’s Mustard Sponsors
Celebrity Game in Hamptons  VERYONE had a ball in the Hamptons on Long Island this summer. French’s Mustard saw to that when it sponsored the Writers & Artists Celebrity Softball Game. The 53d annual event took place in East Hampton, with French’s donating the hot dogs and, of course, French’s Mustard.
“The French’s name stands for family, fun and America,” said Elliott Penner, president of the food division of Reckitt Benckiser, Inc., the New Jersey-based parent company of French’s products. “We hope our contribution makes a difference in the lives of those charities that benefit from this event,” Penner added. 
Eli Wallach meets up with
French’s Mustard Man. | Each year the game raises somewhere in the ballpark of $60,000. This year’s beneficiaries are The Retreat (a shelter for battered women), the East End Hospice, and the East Hampton Day Care Center. The game is organized by local community leaders and volunteers from the charities under the supervision of artist Leif Hope. Legend has it that the games originated in the 1940s when artist Syd Solomon invited fellow artists, notably Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, to play softball in his yard. This year the game attracted such softball enthusiasts as actors Eli Wallach and Roy Scheider, author Ken Auletta, newscaster John Rowland and Rosanna Scotto, Jeffrey Lyons of NBC, ad exec Jerry Della Femina, sports writer Mike Lupica and Yogi Berra. 
New squeeze on the shelf. | Besides French’s Mustard, sponsors included such national and international corporations as Coca-Cola, Details Magazine, Moet & Chandon, Adidas Moves, Walter Bernard and Bender Hammerling Group Public Relations. This was the perfect time for the premier sponsor to launch French’s Sweet Onion mustard. This low calorie, low fat mustard combines French’s Classic Yellow with the sweetness of real onions. Is this a new trend? Supermarkets are now carrying 12-ounce squeeze bottles at a suggested price of $2.49. | 
