Brand: Arnold Bakeries (George Weston Bakeries)
Execution: TV
Link: Click Here – It is the last spot entitled “Cellophane Authenticity”
Target: Sandwich Lovers
Rating: *
Reviewer: David

Description:
We see the storefront of a neighborhood bakery at mid-day and the camera moves to the interior, where a baker is lovingly kneading dough. A tenor sings an aria in the background as he forms the dough into a loaf of bread. Then we see him removing the perfectly browned round loaf from the oven. Glancing at his pocket watch, the baker pulls out a loaf of Arnold bread in the cellophane and makes himself a sandwich. The spot ends with a voiceover saying “There is a better bread – and its name is Arnold.” As the Arnold logo is superimposed over a shot of the baker eating his sandwich.

What Works:
The neighborhood bakery, fresh dough, bread oven, authentic-looking baker and background opera music set us up for something really good. This spot does an exceptionally good job of making us hungry.

What Doesn’t:
J. Walter Thompson (or was it David Ogilvy?) famously said, “Great advertising can kill a bad product.” This isn’t great advertising, but the effect might be the same. This spot does an exceptional job of reminding us of the absolutely deplorable state of supermarket bread. Next to the oven-fresh loaf that we see immediately before it, the Arnold loaf looks like plastic. Partially because it bread is wrapped in plastic. The agency clearly faced a dilemma here. They could show the bread in the plastic and visually reinforce the separation between the bakery and store-bought bread, or they could fail to show the Arnold loaf in the plastic wrap and run the very high risk that consumers wouldn’t understand that the spot is for supermarket bread and the spot would be a waste of money. But showing the Arnold loaf in plastic just a few seconds after the fresh-baked loaf of bakery bread comes out of the oven was surely the worst possible choice in this situation.

This spot also argues with the consumer because it is unimaginable that a man who bakes fresh bread all day and clearly takes pride in the quality of his product would sit down and eat a sandwich for lunch with supermarket bread. This absurd image insults the intelligence of the consumer.

From a brand positioning standpoint, this spot fails in the ‘reason why’ department because it offers no convincing reason to believe Arnold’s claim for ‘better bread.’ In fact, from the perspective of this advertising blog, Arnold has made a very good case for avoiding the supermarket altogether for bread. Arnold would be better off saving the advertising dollars and improving the quality of the product or just being honest and showing why it is better than other supermarket bread.

Branding Bottom Line:
Perhaps bakers, like Dentists, should not appear in commercials.