• by Nina Lentini  @Nina_Lentini, November 21, 2008

Del Monte Fruit has launched an integrated campaign for its Fruit Naturals, Sun Fresh and Orchard Select brands that nakedly touts the ready-to-eat nature of the product.

In "Fruit Undressed," created by Smith Brothers of Pittsburgh, pineapples "go wild," wearing bead necklaces, peaches declare "It's better in the buff," and grapefruit admits it likes "to take it all off."

Each ad--print and online--invites consumers to imagine real fruit in its full glory. The campaign will run in Cooking Light, Better Homes & Gardens, Family Circle, Parade, Healthy Style, People, In Style and Real Simple.

Ads will also be posted at the following Web sites: Real Simple, Cooking Light, My Recipes, Family Circle, All recipes, People, Celebrity Baby Blog, Parents.com, Yahoo, Google and Parade and include coupons and recipes.

Michael Bollinger, director of client services at Smith Brothers, says the work was "driven by the strategy that Del Monte asked us to leverage in our pitch in August in competing for the account." The agency had already done work for Del Monte's 9 Lives cat food, Pup-Peroni treats and Recipe dog food.

The idea was this: the U.S. government tells people they should eat nine to 13 services of fruits and vegetables per day, which is not easy to do. "So we focused on convenience," says Bollinger, "no pits, no pith. 'Fruit Undressed' allowed us to do it not just in the way of making it simple, but also fun and engaging."

And while it was "certainly fun to work with that idea in print and to be provocative, in the online world we could have even more fun, more interactivity."

One example is an ad that recently ran its course on CookingLight.com. It's a pear with a zipper down its middle. "Unzip me," coaxes the text. Mousing over the tab, more than 35% of viewers----to date--"grab" that zipper and pull it down, to reveal a Fruit Naturals cup. Others are at fruitundressed.com.