• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, March 26, 2010

In an ambitious extension of their "real ingredients" message, Hellmann's and Best Foods Mayonnaise have launched a "Real Food Project" premised on helping moms create family meals that offer "simple, delicious" foods.

The core element is a comprehensive Web-based resource, accessible through both Hellmanns.com and BestFoods.com, featuring recipes, tips and ideas -- including tools/techniques videos from celebrity chef Bobby Flay. (Hellmann's also featured Flay recipes/videos in last year's "Real Holiday Helpings" campaign, which also emphasized "real food." Tagline: "It's Time for Real.")

The Real Food site features seasonally appropriate and holiday recipes, as well as everyday meal ideas.

"90210" actress Lori Loughlin is also acting as a spokesperson for the Real Food Project, providing the perspective of a busy mom who faces challenges such as family schedules and her children's "unadventurous appetites" in attempting to make sure that everyone is eating "real," healthy meals.

Site visitors can also play a "Wheel of Real" instant-win game and enter a Real Food Sweepstakes with prizes that include a "food essentials bundle," Flay's "Grill It" cookbooks, and Hellmann's and Best Foods products.

As it happens, the mom-targeted initiative from the two Unilever North America mayo brands is debuting on the heels of the latest round of marketing moves by Kraft's Miracle Whip aimed at positioning the dressing/sandwich spread to a younger audience as a hipper, zestier alternative to mayo.

Miracle Whip has introduced new packaging and a new TV campaign that builds on its "We are Miracle Whip and we will not tone it down" campaign. Previous ads urged "Don't be so mayo," and a new one tweaks both Hellmann's Real Mayonnaise and Kraft Real Mayonnaise by terming mayo "real boring." Miracle Whip is also visible on the packaging -- and even in a "sandwich-making" segment within -- of Lady Gaga's new video, which is currently being featured on the brand's Facebook page.

Interestingly, while Miracle Whip may be "attacking" mayonnaise, it's also giving mayo -- and at least by extension, the leading mayo brands -- a lot of free exposure in media ranging from blogs and social media to TV. (Witness Stephen Colbert's tongue-in-cheek on-air rant last year "defending" mayonnaise and satirizing Miracle Whip's cooler-than-thou, in-your-face creative -- parried by the Miracle Whip marketing team's buying up blocks of advertising time on "The Colbert Report.")