The Florida Citrus Commission is spending most of its $25 million orange-juice marketing budget for 2006-07 on two TV ads that continue its 3-year-old "health and wellness" theme. "Touchless,"
scheduled to air in January for the cold-and-flu season, starts in an office boardroom with participants reaching out to shake hands, but withdrawing before touching. The scene switches to a subway
platform, where two women stop just short of hugging; a ballroom where a couple dances without touching; and finally to a wedding in which the couple blow kisses at each other. The ad finishes with OJ
pouring and a voiceover: "If everybody were this cautious about catching a cold, you wouldn't need Florida orange juice." The other approved ad, scheduled to air in the spring, starts with a child
knocking open a piñata at a birthday party. Celery pours out instead of candy, but the children are just as excited. "If kids loved to eat this healthy, you wouldn't need to start their day with
Florida orange juice," the narrator says. Both ads tested positively with six consumer panels. Another, which started with two people in a corridor confronting a pair of 5-foot-tall germs, didn't fare
as well with viewers and was axed. The Citrus Department will spend $18.5 million in broadcast and cable television and will have product placements showing pitchers or glasses of orange juice on ABC
afternoon soaps and Fox's "Fox & Friends" morning news show.
advertisement
advertisement
Read the whole story at The Miami Herald »