TBWA Celebrates a Day of Sun for Jimmy Dean

TBWA/Chiat Day, LA has a new series of online spots in their ongoing campaign promoting Jimmy Dean’s new lunch and dinner offerings.

Some wondered, when Jimmy Dean announced the move into the instant lunch/dinner market, whether the brand would retain its recognizable sun character due to its association with the morning. But the brand is leaning on its mascot as much as ever, explaining its continued presence with a new series of online spots tracking him on characters across the country and throughout the day.

In “Slow Roast Shuffle” (featured above), he’s dancing up a storm while promoting Jimmy Dean Pulled Pork. Things get over-the-top pretty quickly and his dance partner can’t exactly keep up, as TBWA/Chiat Day stretch the character into some cartoonish territory. Other spots are slightly more down-to-earth, with the sun dropping change into parking meters, giving out free lunch at baggage claim in an airport and riding off into the sunset. All the videos are hosted on a website where you can also track the sun’s progress on the “Sunniest Day,” which Jimmy Dean says was yesterday.

Despite TBWA’s best efforts, the character, so long associated with breakfast, seems a little out of place in these scenarios (and past the AM). With time we’ll see if these are just growing pains or if the character continues to feel awkward promoting meals past breakfast. (more…)

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W+K, Maxwell House Shoot for Good, Not Great

In a world with Starbucks at every corner and small, fancy artisinal coffee shops sprouting up everywhere, it would be counterproductive for an instant coffee brand to try to compete. So W+K starts a different conversation for Maxwell House, asking, “Whatever happened to good?”

The new “Say Good Morning to a Good Day” campaign features a series of broadcast and web spots centering around an affable, middle-aged everyman (everydad?) who laments that with all the attention on phrases like “Awesome,” “Amazing,” and “That’s epic, bro!” people have forgotten about “good.” In the 30-second spot, he goes on to explain that good is “Swinging to get on base” or “choosing not to overshoot the moon, but instead to land right on it.” This all makes “good” seem pretty appealing, with the spot ending with the resurrected “Good to the Last Drop” tagline.

While some may question the choice of admitting your product isn’t “amazing,” the strategy makes sense for Maxwell House, whose coffee is, at best, “good enough,” and whose best bet is to convince the older generation that all the fuss over fancy coffee just isn’t worth it. W+K pull off the execution really well, making the “good” approach about as persuasive as it can be. Credits after the jump. continued…

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