• Brandweek, Tuesday, October 5, 2010 10:46 AM

New ads for Cargill's Truvia zero-calorie sweetener are shifting from an educational message that carried the tagline, "Honestly sweet," to an emotional one featuring women looking longingly at treats such as doughnuts and chocolate bunnies. When they realize that they're made with Truvia, their resistance melts.

Cargill's Ann Tucker tells Elaine Wong that the spots, created by Ogilvy & Mather, Chicago, are about "connecting directly with consumers and attaching our brand name and our brand positioning to this new category. These are the moments and things that women do when they make these trade offs."

But Wong reports that many Americans still haven't heard of stevia and suggests the strategy shift may be ahead of its time. In a report published in August 2009, Mintel found that 68% of consumers weren't familiar with the sweetener. "While that was more than a year ago, not much has likely changed," says senior analyst David Browne.

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