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The Vlasic stork is no Aflac duck. Still, the old ad mascot is back in a new campaign from Publicis & Hal Riney [2] that tweaks the pickle brand’s tagline (from “That’s the best tasting pickle I ever heard” to “That’s the tastiest crunch I ever heard”) and features Nascar’s Kevin Harvick endorsing the product as “the champion pickle” with a crunch that gets him “fired up.” If I were a racecar driver, I’d avoid such potentially combustible wordplay. But if I were a racecar driver, I’d be kicking back in the hot tub with the trophy wife instead of writing this post. Vlasik is also holding a “Crunch Off” (it’s what it sounds like: “Crunch! Crunch!”); a “Vlasik Stork Baby” contest (for human babies, actually); and a “Be the Vlasic Stork” competition (the .001 percent of humans who have beaks have an unfair advantage). The folks who worked all this out get an A+ for effort. Still, I can’t help but think if they stood up in their offices and looked out the window, they might see this stork [3] perched on the ledge, shaking his head sadly and munching on a pickle. (Guess he finally got tired of hanging around outside my cube.)
—Posted by David Gianatasio