Cracker Barrel spots herald new Euro RSCG creative era

Scene from a new Cracker Barrel spot

We’ve been waiting and waiting for this one.  And finally it launched Monday.  This would be the new national brand campaign from Euro RSCG/Chicago for the homey Cracker Barrel restaurant chain.

Called “Handcrafted by Cracker Barrel,” the ad campaign, which includes television, radio, online and a music promotion component, is intended as a major refresh of the familiar restaurant’s image, which already is well-known to hundreds of thousands of hungry families in the nation’s heartland.

More than 600 hundred Cracker Barrel restaurants, each one uniquely decorated with Americana artifacts and outfitted with rocking chairs on the front porch, currently fan out from the company’s corporate headquarters in Lebanon, Tenn., not far from Music City USA, aka Nashville.

Many of the eateries and attached country stores (another integral part of the Cracker Barrel experience) are strategically situated near busy interstate highway exits and bring in tens of thousands of travelers on the move, as well as locals from nearby towns and cities.

Cracker Barrel has been serving diners its reasonably-priced southern comfort food for more than four decades. And now it has plans to expand its footprint, which includes a heavy concentration of restaurants in the southeast, where Cracker Barrel is something of a revered institution.

Though the new campaign is intended to remind longtime fans why they flock to Cracker Barrel (they’re always welcome), the TV spots also hope to serve as a calling card to attract tens of thousands of potential new customers, who may not know what Cracker Barrel has to offer. Or may think it is too tired and retro as a brand to satisfy those with a more modern mindset.

Campaign reflects Peterson’s creative leadership

Cracker Barrel’s familiar Americana wallBut for all that this “Handcrafted” campaign is intended to do for Cracker Barrel, it is of great interest to us, as well, because in many ways the campaign serves as very visible indication of just how refreshed and revived Euro RSCG now is under the creative leadership of Jason Peterson, who arrived from the edgy heart of New York City’s ad land to lead the Euro creative department about a year ago.

Under the former leadership of Steffan Postaer and Blake Ebel, that Euro creative department had its moments, a few of them anyway. But there was never that sense over the course of six or seven years that Postaer and Ebel were able to fully break through and make Euro a great creative powerhouse.

But when we heard several months ago that Peterson and his team had nabbed the national Cracker Barrel advertising account, we figured this was the opportunity for Peterson to take a piece of business we wouldn’t necessarily expect to be a good fit for him and Euro RSCG, and to see what he could do with it
Now we’ve seen.

Debut spots blend fresh approach and CB’s ambience

And we must say Peterson and crew have exceeded our expectations with two debut TV spots that feel fully fresh, while somehow managing to perfectly reflect Cracker Barrel’s carefully-cultivated, old-fashioned gestalt.

Peterson has taken the image of the shadow box, many of which can be seen in Cracker Barrel restaurants, and used it as the unifying visual concept in the two debut 30-second commercials.  The TV spots, titled “Home” and “By Hand,” use the shadow box to suggest the homemade quality of Cracker Barrel food and the vast array of knickknacks that create the ambiance within each restaurant.

The spots, much to our delight, have a lot of visual texture because of the always-changing way the camera scans the shadow boxes and surprises us with each twist and turn — whether it be a shot of a cook’s hand putting fresh-made biscuits on a pan to bake or a plucky hen laying an egg. One is never bored.

Plus, in the process of their playing out, these commercials cleverly manage to convey a lot of specific and important detail, including the fact that most, if not all the meals are handcrafted and the price point for full meals begins at a mere $5.99.  No small matter in these tough economic times.

Music perfectly complements textured visuals

But the spots really resonate and capture the Cracker Barrel zeitgeist thanks to the careful attention paid to the country-tinged musical underscoring (fiddles and whistling and other fun stuff). 
Working with Duotone in New York, Peterson and his team have devised hugely catchy, hummable mini-tunes that ideally complement each spot.

Music has always been a major aspect of the Cracker Barrel experience, and the restaurant chain will expand on that connection as this brand refresh fully rolls out.

In September, Cracker Barrel released an album from the iconic country group, the Oak Ridge Boys, and the plan is to release another disc by a major, yet-to-be-revealed artist in January. The music is conveniently available for purchase at the country store attached to every restaurant.

So this “Handcrafted” effort looks to be a win-win situation for both Euro RSCG/Chicago and client Cracker Barrel.  

If Peterson and the rest of the Euro team can keep the good accounts wins coming and the quality of the creative at this level or better (onward and UPWARD is always nice!), then we will have much to look forward to from what looks less and less like the painfully corpselike Euro RSCG/Chicago of yore.

Credits:  Euro RSCG: CCO, Jason Peterson; Group Creative Director, Michael Shirley; ECD, William Mericle; ACD, Christian Jackson;  senior AD, Scott Rench; senior integrated producer, Britt Drouet.  Production and post company, Paranoid U.S., L.A.: director, Nietok, head of post, Guillaume Raffi, editor, Joe Shakula.  Music and sound design: Duotone Audio Group, New York, composer/arranger, Jack Livesey. 

Contact Lewis Lazare at LewisL3@aol.com.