Slim Jim (snack food) facts for kids
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A packaged mini Slim Jim stick
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| Type | Meat snack |
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| Owner | Conagra Brands |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 1929 |
| Previous owners | General Mills GoodMark Foods |
| Tagline | Snap into a Slim Jim! |
Slim Jim is a popular American meat snack. It's made and sold by a company called Conagra Brands. You can find Slim Jim snacks almost everywhere in the United States. They are very popular, and in 2015, they made $575 million! Around 1 billion Slim Jim snacks are made each year. They come in at least 21 different kinds.
Contents
The Story of Slim Jim
How It Started
The first Slim Jim was created in 1929 in Philadelphia. A man named Al Levis and his brother-in-law, Joseph Cherry, invented it. In the 1940s, they hired a meatpacker to help make more of the product.
Changes Over the Years
In 1967, Levis sold his company for about $20 million to General Mills. This company moved the Slim Jim operations to Raleigh, North Carolina. They combined it with another meat company they owned, creating Goodmark Foods.
Later, in 1982, General Mills decided to sell GoodMark Foods. Four executives from GoodMark, including Ron Doggett, bought the company. Doggett became the president. Then, in 1998, a company called Conagra bought Goodmark.
The Slim Jim you know today is different from the one Levis first made. Lon Adams, who worked for Goodmark, developed the current recipe in the 1990s.
Plant Operations
For many years, the only place in the world that made Slim Jims was a plant in Garner, North Carolina. However, in June 2009, there was an explosion and fire at the plant. This caused a lot of damage and production had to stop for a while.
Conagra reopened the plant about six weeks later. But it could only make half as many Slim Jims as before. So, Conagra arranged for other factories, like one in Troy, Ohio, to help make them. The Garner plant eventually closed in May 2011.
Advertising Fun
Famous Slogans and Stars
The famous slogan, "Snap into a Slim Jim!", was first thought up for a comedian. But it ended up being used with WWF (now WWE) wrestlers. The Ultimate Warrior was the first wrestler to appear in a Slim Jim TV commercial in 1991.
From 1993 to 2000, a professional wrestler named "Macho Man" Randy Savage was the main spokesperson. He would always end commercials by shouting, "Need a little excitement? Snap into a Slim Jim!" This campaign made Slim Jim very popular, especially with teenage boys.
Other famous people who have appeared in Slim Jim ads include rapper Vanilla Ice and wrestlers like Bam Bam Bigelow, Kevin Nash, Edge, Bianca Belair, LA Knight, and Jey Uso. In June 2025, WWE and Slim Jim announced a new partnership. Slim Jim will be featured in the center ring of Raw and on tables during WWE shows.
Creative Campaigns
Another advertising campaign featured the "Slim Jim Guy." This was an actor, Demetri Goritsas, who played a human version of a Slim Jim. He would cause funny chaos inside people's bodies after they ate the snack. His slogan was "Eat me!" These ads were meant to be funny and a bit rebellious. The Slim Jim Guy even appeared as a character in the video game Dave Mirra's Freeestyle BMX 2.
Slim Jim ads were also shown a lot on TV channels like MTV and ESPN. They were also an early sponsor of the ASA Pro Tour, which was a competition for aggressive inline skating.
In 2005, Slim Jim introduced the "Fairy Snapmother." This character looked like a rock star with wings and had a funny, edgy sense of humor.
One campaign showed "hunters" looking for a made-up animal called a "Snapalope" in convenience stores. The Snapalope was a deer-like puppet made out of Slim Jims!
Online and Sports
In 2008, Slim Jim launched a website called "SpicySide.com." It encouraged people to create an avatar and "fight" their friends in an online world called Spicy Town.
Since 2012, Slim Jim has used social media to advertise. They use internet humor and memes to connect with people online. They even have an unofficial slogan, "Long Boi Gang," which refers to the snack itself. The Slim Jim social media account often comments on popular meme pages, which has made it quite popular.
Slim Jim has also sponsored NASCAR drivers. They sponsored Bobby Labonte and David Green when they won the NASCAR Busch Series championship in 1991 and 1994.
What's Inside a Slim Jim?
A Slim Jim is often called a "meat stick." It's similar to a fermented sausage like salami or pepperoni. These types of sausages use good bacteria and sugar to create lactic acid. This process lowers the pH of the meat, making it firmer.
Some of the ingredients in a Slim Jim include beef, chicken, salt, and spices. Sodium nitrite is added to keep the meat from turning gray.
Different Kinds of Slim Jim
Slim Jim offers more than just the original meat stick. They have also created other products, often using better quality meats. These include tender steak strips and beef jerky.
The tender steak strips come in three different tastes. The beef jerky comes in four flavors, including an original flavor, two spicy ones, and a smokin' apple flavor.
See also
