Cooking for Two

In mid October I talked about Pillsbury's, "Cooking for Two" product launch and advertising campaign that’s prompted by the reducing size of US households.

Here are some more details of the campaign taken from the New York Times (subscription only).

The campaign is made up of advertising, promotions and public-relations initiatives, both offline and online, and is centered on Pillsbury’s oven baked dinner rolls and is aimed to appeal boomers.

General Mills, owners of Pillsbury, is calling the campaign the first of its kind for a leading national brand. The intention is to appeal to consumers who once bought the large, family-size packages of Pillsbury products but are now “empty nesters” and looking for brands that will address their changed circumstances (hence “Cooking for Two”).

"It's such a big change in the demographics," says Pillsbury’s marketing manager and represents "an enormous opportunity." "More and more manufacturers are heading down this route," he adds. "It's just a question of to what degree." "We're really focusing on a loyal consumer who loves our products,and now makes buying decisions based on attributes like portion control and convenience as well as mainstays like taste and quality".

Jill Novak, the Saatchi & Saatchi group account director for Pillsbury says: "The demographic is 45 plus, but the psychographic is a couple with a renewed focus on each other, it's a time of reconnection, experimentation,which can bring a new conduciveness to some new products." I am not too sure I understand what this means but it sounds great!!

The commercial depicts a 50-ish couple saying "We're in this experimental phase," the actor playing the husband says, to which the actress playing the wife replies, "He is." As the couple is shown shopping, exercising, reading and preparing dinner, an announcer says of the Oven Baked products, "You make as many as you want, when you want." The couple then sits down to dinner and Poppin' Fresh appears, playfully dimming the lights. The actress says: "There's only so much experimentation I can take. At least at the dinner table." Wow. As the journalist in the NYT said: “Is this a commercial for baked goods or for Cialis?”

The commercial is appearing during shows that baby boomers watch, Ms. Novak says, like "Boston Legal," "Law & Order" and "60 Minutes," rather than on series like "America's Funniest Home Videos," during which Pillsbury runs spots for family-oriented products like frozen cookie dough.

The public-relations part of the campaign features Peggy Fleming, the Olympic skater, who is making personal appearances for Pillsbury to promote the "Cooking for Two" campaign. She appeared at the AARP Event, held in Las Vegas in October, and this month, she "taught" Poppin' Fresh how to skate at the ice rink at Rockefeller Center.

The rationale for choosing Peggy Fleming is that: "We were looking for a celebrity with a strong track record and Peggy is someone folks in the 50-plus range can relate to because they fondly recall her skating career and Olympic appearances”. I wouldn’t be too sure of that!

Well I guess you have got to start somewhere. Don’t get me wrong I am not knocking Pillsbury but I have to say this advert does sound a bit naff.

Still, Pillsbury’s efforts are a start at getting major brands to respond to older people. I think it is fair to say they have left some room for improvement. Dick Stroud: www.20plus30.com


Pillsbury - Cooking for two