Wal-Mart Serves Up Family Affair

NEW YORK Wal-Mart is touting the organic food offerings available at its Super Centers in an integrated TV and print campaign.

The effort for the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailing giant, via Bernstein-Rein, Kansas City, Mo., includes TV, print, online and in-store components with the tagline, “What will you bring to the table?”

Bernstein-Rein has created ads for Wal-Mart’s Super Centers since 1998, with a focus on one-stop convenience. This is the first campaign focused on food.

“This is kicking off our food messaging for Wal-Mart, getting our whole food program going,” said Joe Myers, vp, group account director at Bernstein-Rein. “We’re creating some news for Wal-Mart in the context of offering something new for its customers. Organic food at Wal-Mart is probably something a lot of people haven’t thought of.”

Creative is intended to capture the warmth of family. “It’s about the whole notion of food bringing the family together and the freshness of organics,” said Myers.

The campaign consists of a 30-second television commercial that broke last Monday on national cable including The Food Network and HGTV as well as national network TV. Three print executions will break in August issues of women’s service, parenting, health/wellness and epicurean magazines. Images combine conversation and naturalistic, colorful images of food.

One print execution, for example, asks, “What will you bring to the table? Bring a picnic basket. And an excuse to ditch work.” A second ad reads, “Know what goes well with organic milk? Organic cereal and knock-knock jokes.”

The budget for the campaign was not revealed, but Myers described the buy as “aggressive.” Bernstein-Rein handles Wal-Mart’s media planning and buying.

Wal-Mart spent $570 million on paid media last year; its account is currently in play.