Published: September 24, 2008
Publix Uses Food Art To Celebrate West Indian Independence Days
Atlanta's Matlock Advertising & Public Relations Creates Ads
using more than 400 photographs shot of fresh produce
Publix has extended its Independence Day print ad campaign targeting West Indians from the Bahamas, Barbados, Haiti, Jamaican, and The Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, with vibrant and compelling ads using food-as-art to create a national icon of each island. The print ads will run in select newspapers in south Florida, supported by a radio campaign.
"A large part of our consumer base in South Florida is made up of customers from the West Indies. We respect and appreciate that they are extremely proud of their home country's culture and history," said Kimberly Jaeger, Publix manager of Media and Community Relations. "In our effort to celebrate this consumer, we wanted to highlight each island's Independence Day as we know it is a time for cooking, celebration and reflection. This ad campaign celebrates the rich heritage of each island through foods that are a part of their culinary customs and available at Publix."
Jaeger explained that the first series of ads featured each island's flag designed from favorite island produce, tagged with a nugget of island history and the date of its independence.
The new ads have been expanded to highlight national icons from each country with Carnival women for Trinidad & Tobago, a humming bird for Jamaica, a flying fish for Barbados, a bus for Haiti, and a conch shell for the Bahamas. Keeping in line with the campaign tag, "a culture so rich you can taste it," every part of each icon is edible or a part of a plant down to the Carnival women's coco and cinnamon eye shadow and eyebrows of brown rice; the passion fruit eye and green onion tail of the humming bird; and the strawberry mud flaps and banana tailpipe of the Haitian bus.
"Not only does this campaign allow Publix to celebrate the Independence Days of our West Indian customer, it gives us an opportunity to share cultural information with all our customers," said Jaeger.
The Independence Day campaign was created by Matlock Advertising & Public Relations.
"We understand Publix's commitment to this consumer's passion for culture and country and the importance of developing messaging that celebrates them," said Tobi Carvana-Moore, associate creative director at Matlock. "With this, we wanted something that would deeply resonate with this particular consumer, but also was something every Publix customer could enjoy.
The intense creative process included a brainstorm with the creative team on what icons to use, and then viewing items from Publix to determine what food would look best like the many parts of the icon. Once this was determined photos were taken, and then each icon was composed.
Matlock worked closely with a top-notch creative team consisting of a photographer, digital artists, studio director and award-winning food stylist.
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Each new print ad continues to carry a historical fact, the island's independence date, and its food flag from the first campaign. The new campaign launched in mid-August and will run through 2009.
Publix is owned and operated by its 141,000 employees, with 2007 sales of $23 billion. Currently Publix has 941 stores in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee. The company has been named one of Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For in America" for 11 consecutive years. In addition, Publix's dedication to superior quality and customer service is recognized as tops in the grocery business, most recently by an American Customer Satisfaction Index survey. For more information, visit the company's Web site, www.publix.com.
Matlock is a full-service multicultural advertising and public relations agency headquartered in Atlanta, GA with an office in New York, NY. Founded in 1986 by Kent Matlock, the agency has been enhancing and protecting its clients' two most powerful assets - their Brands and their Reputations. Its impressive list of clients includes Publix Super Markets, BMW North America, Chase, Barbados, Luster Products, Inc. and Georgia Pacific. For more information on Matlock Advertising & Public Relations visit http://www.matlock-adprl.com or call 404-872-3200.
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