Food Lion Unit Targets Grocery Shoppers With A Funny Bone

bagBloom, an upscale division of Food Lion, is guessing that all its shoppers have a few issues. So in its new TV ads, the chain takes a decidedly lighthearted approach to easing their angst. As shoppers confess all kinds of comical, compromising or just pathetic problems, relentlessly cheerful Bloom clerks respond with upbeat non sequiturs.

"Turns out, there are security cameras in the supply closet," deadpans a young woman. A clerk responds: "But Bloom's bakery's got handmade artisan bread!" "What happened in Vegas didn't stay in Vegas," says one glum, middle-aged woman, only to be told "Well, Bloom sells only Angus beef at non-Angus prices."

Ads also highlight the features that make Bloom's "Shop Happy" promise more believable, like 20-minute upfront parking and lower, easier-to-reach shelves. There's even a celebrity cameo: "I entered an Erik Estrada look-alike contest," says Erik Estrada. "Came in second."

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"It's just a fun kind of supermarket," says David Oakley, creative director of BooneOakley, Bloom's Charlotte, N.C.-based agency. The campaign continues to use its description of "a different kind of grocery store," he says, and the ads make it clear that "even though everyone has stuff going on in their lives, Bloom is an escape from regular shopping. It puts you in a good mood."

The TV campaign is based on 12 vignettes, which will be bundled in threes early in the campaign, and will later run as :15s on network and cable in Bloom's mid-Atlantic markets.

But the store is even giving its slightly-off-the-wall positioning a shove toward the guerilla-esque, printing 6 million stickers that employees can post anywhere--on products, on bags, and even occasionally, on shoppers. Dubbed Bloomisms, the stickers are just silly:

--Make mischief. Or, if you're a man, make misterchief.

--Life is beautiful, and not just in a "great personality" kind of way.

--Live in the now. No wait, now. Okay, now.

Bloom is a division of Food Lion, Salisbury, N.C., which is a part division of Delhaize Group, Brussels.

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