Sentimental or Sappy? Confessions of a Publix Junkie

I have a long standing love-hate relationship with Publix advertising. I do not normally enjoy anything sappy, especially in a commercial, but something about their ads always hits me.

I grew up in South Carolina and now go to school in Georgia, so I was raised on the Publix sentimental salt shaker commercials. If you are unlucky enough not to have a Publix in your area, let me explain. Every Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember (which may only be 4 or 5 years), Publix runs these ads about a family of salt and pepper shakers that get separated at the two different tables at Thanksgiving (the kids and the adults). The reason this commercial doesn't completely cheese me out is because it plays on that wonderful insight of what it's like to sit at the kids' table. For all of us with larger families, we know what it's like to wish we were at the big table.

Well, Publix most recent campaign focuses on Easter and family gatherings. The scene starts in the kitchen where two sisters are family favorites that "nana" gave them recipes for. Well, there is this young woman who looks slightly uncomfortable and we later learn she recently married their brother. The whole meal she looks like she just doesn't quite belong, but luckily at the end nana slips a recipe into her pocket as a "welcome to the family" kind of moment and she feels accepted.

I am not much of a crier, much less during commercials for grocery stores, but this ad makes me tear up every time. Mainly because my grandmother had the same kind of beat up index card for her recipes. After she passed last year, my mom had some of the index cards framed for me as a memento of all the good times we had over her famous fried chicken and custard.

Watching this ad today made me think whoever is doing Publix's advertising really does get it. Great advertising is all about having insight into your customers. Publix ads certainly do hit the target on insight. Every one of their ads is all about family and togetherness- not their clean and easy to access grocery stores. It's more than just the cliche family gathered around a table... it's the little true- to -life moments of eating with the in laws for the first time that make these ads so memorable and effective.

In fact, I wanted to check out if anyone else felt this way about Publix ads. I felt some what comforted to know others love Publix ads the way I do. On just the first page of my search for Publix commercials, I found multiple people who list crying while watching them on their blogs. One person even had a picture of the pilgrim pair on his blog. The most interesting thing about his blog was the number of comments by people who had also felt compelled by the ads to purchase these plump pilgrims.

I guess, to be utterly honest, that Publix commercials are my secret love. I can't help it. I hope that one day I can find that insight into my future consumers the way Publix has.

Here is one of my favorite Publix ads:
Valentine's Day

If anyone knows how I can get more Publix commercials, it would make my week!