New advertising campaign to promote recommended servings of fruits and vegetables

ConAgra Foods’ Manwich® brand announced this week a new television advertising campaign promoting the full serving of vegetables found in each serving of Manwich. A standard quarter-cup serving of Manwich Original contains a half-cup of vegetables, making it easier for consumers to get their recommended five servings of vegetables and fruit each day.

The new television advertisements mark Manwich’s first new creative campaign in three years and the first time Manwich has aired 30-second units. Prior television ads were limited to 15 seconds. In December, the new “full serving of vegetables” message will also appear on packaging. Although Manwich has long held the No. 1 spot in the sloppy joe category, the new strategic message requires a deeper communication with the target consumer, said Sandra Williams, brand director at ConAgra Foods.

“Past advertising for Manwich focused on fun family mealtimes. From our consumer focus groups, we learned moms had misconceptions about Manwich’s nutritional value,” Williams said. “The objective of the new campaign is to increase the usage of Manwich within our growth target by promoting the full serving of vegetables strategic messaging and encouraging moms to feel good about serving Manwich to their families more frequently.”

The series of three commercials, developed by DDB San Francisco, carry the tag line “Manwich. Meat Your Vegetables.” All of the lighthearted spots feature a young girl who is dressed as a Manwich for a school play while her classmates are dressed as vegetables. She touts the wholesomeness of Manwich to her classmates and family. The media focuses on key cable networks that are relevant to the brand’s target, such as USA, Lifetime and TLC. The commercials are also available on YouTube titled Manwich "Sloppy Joe Girl" Commercial and Manwich "School Play" Commercial.