• Ad Age, Wednesday, February 18, 2009 11 AM

When you're walking happy
Don't the bloomin' world seem fine

I've never forgotten the lyrics and jaunty tune to the title song of a rather lame Broadway musical I saw more than 40 years ago. It's human nature to want to smile in the face of adversity. Call it mind over matter, whistling past the graveyard of the recession or just plain reverse psychology, but Kraft is joining Coke and Pepsi in walking happy, Emily Bryson York reports.

Through a "co-creation process" with consumers, employees, and ad agencies Nitro and Promise, Kraft has developed a new logo that contains a red smile at the end of the Kraft Foods name. A "colorful flavor burst" at the end resembles a flower. It will only appear in corporate communications and on the company's website, not on jars and cans of the company's products.

Says CEO Irene Rosenfeld: "As the next step in our turnaround, we're adding three new ingredients to our recipe for success: a higher purpose that acts as a common call to action, values in action that guide our behavior, and a new look and feel to visually depict our renewed energy."

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