Refining Efforts : New Beef, Raisin Ad Campaigns

While the seafood industry was celebrating its first national advertising campaign, two other commodity groups were refining highly visible promotional efforts.

The Beef Industry Council has announced that its next series of commercials will feature regular people from towns with odd names. The format is a departure for the “Beef: Real Food for Real People” ads that in the past have used film, television and sports stars. Some of those who made sales pitches for the council were James Garner, Cybil Shepherd, Lauren Bacall, Larry Bird and country singer Reba McIntire.

The original campaign, launched in 1986, was considered a success, according to a trade newsletter.

The new commercials, scheduled to begin airing in October, will “show slices of life featuring real people . . . doing the things they do everyday in a few small American towns with cute names,” according to Lean Trimmings, published by the Western States Meat Assn.

Some of the locales filmed for the series are Utopia, Tex., Luck, Wis., and Yale, Wash.

On a Different Tack

Taking a somewhat different tack is the California Raisin Advisory Board. The group announced last week that a new set of commercials featuring the cartoon raisin characters have been filmed. But in this series, pop star Michael Jackson will be portrayed by one of the raisins. The spot received its first public viewing in 5,700 movie theaters last week.

The inclusion of Jackson with the wildly popular dancing raisins came about because the singer/dancer was fascinated by the dried grapes as well as by the Claymation process used to create them.

Jackson’s cartoon alter-ego will be the first celebrity in the series, and his character has been named “Michael Raisin,” according to the advisory board.

The challenge, the commercial’s producers claim, was to capture Jackson’s spirit.

The commercials are scheduled for network television in September.

Raisins vs. Cranberries

In an unrelated matter, the California Raisin Advisory Board is not flattered by what it claims is an attempt by cranberry growers to cash in on the popularity of the dancing raisins.

The dispute centers around Ocean Spray’s new product, Craisins. The dried cranberry snack was introduced this summer, according to California Farmer magazine.

The raisin advisory board has complained that Craisins will confuse consumers and hurt sales of raisins.

“The dehydrated cranberry’s name plays on (the word) raisin in an unfair attempt to capitalize on the raisin advisory board’s hard-won success with the dancing raisins,” the magazine reports.

Also of concern is that consumers may eat a Craisin and think it’s an inferior raisin.

Ocean Spray maintains that their product does not infringe upon the dancing raisins and that there is room in the marketplace for more than just one dried fruit.