LEVY'S JEWISH RYE

 

After seeing the ads done for Ohrbach, Whiter Rub called Bernbach to take on the Levy’s account. Rubin had taken over the company when it went bankrupt. Levy was a Jewish bakery in Brooklyn, New York. Rubin wanted Levy’s campaign to target its Jewish customers. However, after tried the product, Bernbach realized that the breads might be able to compete with other known brands. Bernbach knew that people perceived the freshness of the bread if it was not soggy. They usually checked this quality by squeezing the package. Meanwhile, Levy produced loaves of breads that were not mushy at all.

Bernbach persuaded Rubin to target people outside Jewish community. The bread should look for the Wonder Bread’s market. The owner, then, agreed. The first ad campaign that DDB came up with was ads that had a question headline, “Are you buying a bed or a bread?” Phyllis Robinson principally wrote the ads. The copy gave explanations on how and why Levy’s breads were such quality breads.

 

Bernbach also abandoned the company’s usual media outlets. Rather than New York Post, which 80 % of its readers were Jewish, he placed the ads in World-Telegram and Journal-American’s food sections.

With the print campaign was underway, the agency also created a radio commercial for Levy’s that featured a small boy asking his mom for “Wevy’s cimminum waisin bread.” Though in the ad the mother tried to correct her son’s pronunciation, many listeners loved the phrase “I wuv Wevy’s.” The commercial created a buzz that made the sales of Levy’s breads to improve. By the end of that year, Levy’s could proclaim its image with a statement “New York is eating it up.” In 1960, the campaign stretched into a series of posters that placed in subways. For this particular campaign, the slogan was “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s.” and images of various ethnic groups enjoying the bread as the main visual. The concept was derived from its previous success in reaching the unexpected targets. Bernbach also changed the company’s name from Levy’s Real Rye to Levy’s Real Jewish Rye. Though at first Rubin objected to the name change for the anti-semantic clash, Bernbach once again persuaded him by saying, “For God’s sake, your name is Levy’s. They are not going to mistake you for high Episcopalian’ (Levenson, 1987).

As a result, posters of the campaign was copied and parodied by many people because of their humorous and simple appeals.

Although the ad budget was small, $50,000, DDB once again prove to be able to create another successful campaign. Like what he did for Ohrbach, Bernbach gave Levy’s bakery a lasting personality.

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