Wonderful Pistachios Get Crackin Ad Campaign Tops Nielsen Charts

by Helen Winkler, Paramount Farms
Posted: Monday, December 7, 2009 at 12:28PM EST

LOS ANGELES (December 1, 2009) – Results are in, and Wonderful Pistachios’ nutty new national advertising campaign is a big hit with consumers. Recent “Likeability” and “Recall Scores” of new ad executions released by The Nielsen Company placed two (out of eight) Wonderful Pistachios' commercials in the top ten. The “Beauty Queens Do it Without a Clue” spot, featuring former Miss South Carolina Teen USA Lauren Caitlin Upton, scored the fifth most-liked new ad and the “Wee-Man Does it Dangerously” spot starring “Jackass” prankster Wee-Man ranked as the ninth most-recalled new ad.

The $15 million “Get Crackin’” television campaign is the first ever for the category. The campaign’s rally cry for consumers to feel confident about eating the lowest-calorie, lowest-fat nut, features eight celebrity figures demonstrating how they crack open a pistachio in their own unique, light-hearted way.

In addition to Upton and Wee-Man, the campaign includes Olympic swimmer and record-setting medalist Dara Torres; Brady Bunch alum Christopher Knight and America’s Next Top Model wife Adrianne Curry; The Sopranos actor Vincent Pastore; the Denny quintuplets; father of Sarah Palin’s grandchild, Levi Johnston; and a real-life dominatrix.

“We wanted to get the attention of America with our tongue-in-cheek campaign that is the industry’s first - and it looks like we’ve cracked that code,” said Dominic Engels, vice president of global marketing, Paramount Farms, producer of Wonderful Pistachios. “As we move into the entertaining-filled holiday season – a popular time for a very social nut – we’re thrilled that Wonderful Pistachios will be top-ofmind while consumers hit the produce aisles at the grocery store.”Nielsen’s research considered new ad executions airing between September 21, 2009 and October 18, 2009. Ads were ranked using The Likeability Score, the percentage of TV viewers who report to like an ad “a lot,” and the Recall Score, the percentage of TV viewers who can recall the ad and brand within 24 hours indexed against the mean score for all ads during the period.

The commercials have been airing on top-rated shows including Monday Night Football, Late Night with David Letterman, Saturday Night Live and The Office. The campaign runs through December.

Source: Paramount Farms