Charleston couple wins contest

For an extra $5,000, 5-week-old Whitney Werking's middle name would change to "Crunch."

At least that's how much money Vlasic Pickles would add to the reward Jenny and Ryan Werking received for winning the first-ever Vlasic Stork Baby contest.

In May, the Charleston couple wrote a 100-word essay describing their love for pickles, submitted a photo of the baby in question and waited for the results.

Jenny was excited from the start.

"It was the perfect contest," she said. And for a pickle lover who's never won a thing in her life, the $20,000 savings bond for her daughter, free trip to New York City for dinner, and a year's supply of pickles was too good to pass up.

Stefan Aps and a team of Vlasic Pickles colleagues sifted through more than 200 entry essays and baby pictures. Aps, a senior brand manager for the company, said the Werkings' submission stood out from the start.

He recalled Jenny's essay: a pregnant mother with an intense craving for pickles — so intense her friends threw a pickles-and-ice-cream themed baby shower for her. It was a good story, even ironic. After all, the company's own mascot came into being because of pregnancy.

"Our icon for the brand is a stork," Aps said. "And he really came about in the early '70s when there wasn't a baby boom. So we said, 'Why don't we have a stork? He won't be delivering babies, but he'll deliver pickles.'●"

It was a marketing plan, and Vlasic Pickles continues to play off it today.

Jenny Werking imagined stacks of pickle jars along her porch, the promised year's supply for winning the contest. But rather than send them in bulk, Vlasic Pickles plans to use a more efficient route for delivery.

"I thought I was going to get all these pickles mailed to my house," Jenny said. "But they send me coupons. People are really excited and everyone wants me to share pickles with them — I'll probably be bringing them to every party I go to."

Oh, and Whitney Werking's middle name won't be "Crunch;" it will remain Gloria (after both her grandmothers), but for one year she will serve as the Vlasic Pickles' baby.