Reuel Golden

Annie's Homegrown (a division of Annie's Inc.) is possibly the biggest brand in organic and natural products for children: Its goodies include fruits snacks, cereal and mac 'n' 'cheese. But until now the company has never done any print advertising.
 
A three-execution campaign is breaking next month that subtly gets across the message that Annie's is an old-fashioned company working with organic ingredients that kids just can't get enough of. In one ad, called "snacklList," there is a shot of a clipboard listing the snack rotation clipboard for a second grade class. All the parent volunteer names have been crossed out and replaced with "Jimmy's Mom," who is clearly the one supplying the kids with Annie's food.
 
In another execution called "Lunchbox", a kid has a serious lock around his lunchbox. In the third shot, "Textbook," a box of Annie's Honey Bunnies is hidden, not that subtly amongst some textbooks. The images were all shot by the San Francisco based photographer Laurie Frankel, while the studio XYZ also in SF, shot the packaging. TDA Advertising & Design of Boulder, Colorado created the campaign and the creatives who worked on the project include creative directors Jonathan Schoenberg and Thomas Dooley and art director Haley Garyet.
 
According to Sarah W. Bird VP marketing, Annie’s Inc, the concept of the campaign is very straightforward: "Kids love Annie’s and moms feel really good about serving it. The context of old fashioned school setting is real, authentic, homespun, warm and classic. This means that the execution of the communication message requires some thought…not an in your face sales pitch – something more subtle and thoughtful/thought provoking."
 
The Napa based privately held Annie Withey – a mother and organic farmer who is still involved in the business, started the company in 1989.  Withey created a program called “Be Green” when she founded the business and right from the start focused on using highest quality ingredients, sourced from small family farms. That's certainly being ahead of the curve.

 Bird says that Frankel is both a mother and an Annie's customer, so she got the concept straight away. "There really wasn't a lot of work from our point of view. She captured the essence of the brand in a warm and nurturing way and her lighting is just perfect. Laurie just brought to life our strategy with a wonderful visual," adds Bird.
 
The ads are appearing both as single pages in magazines such as Body&Soul,
Family Fun, Health, Wondertime and Parents and as posters.