The new Kraft mayonnaise commercial is not only entertaining but extremely clever.
Have you seen it? It’s a takeoff on the Extreme Makeover shows. The wife was always making tiny finger sandwiches, like the ones you’d have at high tea, and the husband was forlorn. Kraft bursts in and does an extreme sandwich makeover with its new seasoned mayo and an oversized roll, and the result moves both husband and wife to tears.
Advertising Age ran a story earlier this year on Kraft’s push to step up its marketing strategy following the company’s acquisition of Cadbury. Kraft has produced some pretty memorable ads over the years. Remember the famous “And I helped!” for Shake and Bake? Ad Age points out that the company continues to wear a bit of a down-home label when it comes to its commercials.
Twenty-four years ago, Neil Postman wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, in which he discussed how television and other entertainment media spill over into politics and public dialogue. Even after 24 years, while the entertainment media are vastly transformed, a point Postman made regarding television advertising holds true today, as Kraft proves in its Sandwich Makeover campaign: “What the advertiser needs to know is not what is right about the product but what is wrong about the buyer.”
What better way is there than an ambush makeover to make a consumer feel bad enough about herself to run right out and buy mayonnaise?
Word Nymph 