Agency’s really cooking with Philadelphia Cooking Creme ad

Updated: June 12, 2011 4:46AM

Only last week we were talking about how packaged foods behemoth Kraft Foods is tossing out tired formulaic advertising and investing more in new initiatives that spark consumer interest and, in some instances, heated debate. A Greek grandma called Yiayia, a brand ambassador for Kraft’s Athenos line of Greek foods, got a lot of people talking about her blunt language after we wrote about a campaign in which she is prominently featured.

But that was last week. Now comes more great stuff from the Escape Pod/Chicago and creative leader Vinny Warren for a Kraft product line called Philadelphia Cooking Creme, a new twist on Kraft’s iconic Philadelphia brand cream cheese that is rolling out nationally.

Two online videos poke fun at the whole celebrity TV chef phenomenon. Presumably with Emeril Lagasse’s permission, Warren references the noted chef as a jumping off point to comment on how easy it may be to establish oneself as a celebrity chef if you have a couple of clever hooks on which to hang your toque.

One of the new online videos stars Lagasse’s real-life attorney Mark Stein talking about how he always dreamed of being a TV chef. Stein shows us how he would realize his dream by promoting his ties to Lagasse and using the catchphrase “boom” to underscore important moments in his cooking demonstrations. We then watch a very calculating Stein mesmerize an enthusiastic studio audience as he whips up a dish with the new cooking creme.

A second video upends the TV celebrity chef shtick even more by introducing us to yet another guy who just happens to look a bit like Lagasse and who has his own signature word “blam.”

Warren is careful not to push the tone of the work too far toward outright corny, so we can readily see the truth in what he is saying about celebrity chefs, even as we are being shown different ways to use the new Kraft cooking creams.

Who could ask for more?

Lew’s view: A-

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