Kraft Taps Pauly D and James Carville to Whip Up Miracle Whip Buzz

Miracle Whip is launching "a brutally honest and expensive TV commercial on that popular show on FOX that begins at 8pm EST. It's about how much people love us. Or can't stand us."

So says the tongue-in-cheek full-page newspaper ads taken out by the Kraft-owned brand today, touting an ad buy on American Idol and directing people to miraclewhip.com (which redirects to its reskinned YouTube channel) for a free sample.

The campaign, which also features Jersey Shore's Pauly D, Democratic strategist James Carville, and comic domestic goddess Amy Sedaris is part of Kraft's commitment to increase its advertising spend in order to capture more market share for its bands.

“In this environment, we must work even harder at customer and consumer delight,” Tony Vernon, the president of Kraft Foods North America, told analysts at an analyst meeting in Florida this week. 

Vernon said Kraft plans to increase its marketing and advertising budget in North America, and introduce more TV advertising campaigns for brands including Miracle Whip and Planters. 

Kraft plans to increase its marketing budget for advertising and promotions from the 8.1% of net revenues it spent across its brands in 2010 (about $1.1 billion) to between 9% and 10% of net revenues.

In addition to creating buzz for Miracle Whip among younger consumers, the increased marketing expenditure will help launch new product offerings.

Kraft's 2011 product launches include MiO, its liquid concentrated flavoring for water (also using a free sample strategy), Philadelphia Cooking Creme, Lunchables with Fruit, and Planters Nut-rition, a mixed blend of nuts and dried fruit.