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October 26, 2009

All eyes on Darrell

Photo/Whit Richardson Darrell McCrum appears in a new Frito-Lay television spot
By Carol Coultas

Have you noticed the new TV ads from Frito-Lay, touting its U.S. growers?

Darrell McCrum of Mars Hill-based County Super Spuds appears as one of five growers profiled in the spots, and the only one from Maine. But in the narrative, he’s described as a New England potato farmer, not a Maine potato farmer, while all the others are identified by their home states.

What gives?

Advertising markets. The “Lay’s Local” campaign includes national and regional television spots that are tied in with 40,000 in-store displays customized for each participating state. Frito-Lay also plans to participate in more than 50 local events throughout the country celebrating its potato chip communities, ranging from July 18’s Maine Potato Blossom Festival to the Hall of Fame Parade in Canton, Ohio, to Utah Pioneer Days, according to the company website.

Chris Kuechenmeister, director of public relations for the snack food giant, told Mainebiz that staff discussed whether to take a regional or state approach in designing the national campaign, which runs through Labor Day. In big states like California, it made sense to make the state connection between the growers and the viewing audience because the ad would show in a huge market, says Kuechenmeister. Maine’s tiny market, by comparison, wouldn’t have delivered the same punch.

Bundling it with other New England markets gives the ad greater reach, says Kuechenmeister. Frito-Lay buys a few potatoes from Rhode Island and Massachusetts, but the 196 million pounds Maine sent in 2008 dwarves the other two states. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Maine produced 1.6 billion pounds of potatoes in 2008, making pipsqueaks of Massachusetts’ 32 million pounds and Rhode Island’s 16 million pounds.

Plus McCrum, who sits on the Maine Potato Growers Board, is a good representative of the industry as a whole, says Kuechenmeister.

“He has an incredible story to tell,” says Kuechenmeister, referencing McCrum’s fifth-generation family farm. “By using a regional approach in the ad, more people could appreciate Darrell’s story.”

Ayuh.

Carol Coultas

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