Who: Maple Leaf Foods, with Sid Lee for creative.
What: “It’s only natural,” a new campaign for Maple Leaf Natural Bacon that’s a continuation of its broader effort promoting its Naturals products, including lunch meat for back to school, and hot dogs for BBQ season (see all of the spots below). “Every product will have a chance to step into the spotlight over the course of the year, but now just happens to be bacon’s time,” said Sid Lee creative director Matthew Fraracci.
When & Where: The campaign is in market now, running across TV, complemented by online cutdowns.
Why: As with all of Maple Leaf’s work, the ask was for creative that communicates the company’s natural credentials, said Fraracci. All of the work ladders up to Maple Leaf’s brand platform “We’re for real,” a reflection of the company’s ongoing commitment to using simple, natural ingredients.
“It’s a nice, natural creative platform that lets us talk about varied products with a degree of consistency,” said Fraracci. “It’s a scaffolding that we can put around whatever we need [in order] to make it super-relevant for parents.”
How: The new work presents an honest portrayal of parenthood, said Fraracci. “We’re really proud that we were able to take the product in hand and distill a truth about it,” he said. “We’re mining unvarnished truths that appeal to parents. We talk a lot about empathizing with parents, and I think that entails showing life not in a vanilla way… I think any parent sees that work and says ‘These guys get me.'”
The 30-second anchor spot, “Natural Morning Moments,” plays off some of the things about family mornings that are only natural, like a dad opting not to pick a tiny piece of egg shell out the scrambled eggs because it’s tricky and besides, a little shell never hurt anyone; to a child eating the bacon first and then immediately regretting it; to soaking the pans, even though they never need to soak.
A 15-second spot, “Bacon for Everybody,” shows dad making bacon for the family, while the voiceover explains that it’s only natural for him to secretly hope that nobody else wants any. I think the insights we mine are always good,” added Fraracci. “It’s funny how when you just put on your human being hat, they’re kind of right there. The stuff you get right, you know right away.”
And we quote: “This is a brand that has a real story to tell in terms of its social consciousness that comes out of the food they make, the pride they take in the food they make, and their vision as a sustainable protein company. To me the job is… to have that on everybody’s mind when they have to stand in an aisle and make a decision.” — Matthew Fraracci, creative director, Sid Lee
