‘Philly’ girls under threat as Kraft tests new executions

Kraft Jacobs Suchard is testing advertising in one-third of the UK which if successful, could ultimately replace its 11-year-old “Philly” girls campaign.

The new humorous ads feature a young woman enjoying the fantasy of being by a swimming pool in a tropical location while she is served Philadelphia cream cheese.

It is being screened in Granada, Yorkshire Tyne Tees and Border and has been created by Kraft agency J.Walter Thompson.

Nick Shepherd, marketing general manager for coffee and food at KJS, denies that there are plans to dump the two talkative secretaries Sarah and Anne who have done so much to build the brand and achieve extremely high levels of advertising recall.

He says: “We are not at the moment replacing the campaign, and have just shot two more executions to be aired in July.”

But he says Kraft will develop more work on its alternative campaign. He adds: “Working with JWT, we will probably make further commercials. We may well not put the two secretaries back on air in that part of the country.

“Every campaign ends and when the time comes I would like to have a campaign that I can switch into straight away.”

The Philly girls, one of whom is a “brand expert” while the other is a “brand novice”, share a hyperbolic love of Philadelphia.

The campaign has been flexible enough to advertise new flavour variants, line extensions and serving suggestions since it was first aired in 1987.

Stephen Carter, JWT chief executive says: “There are absolutely no plans to shelve the current campaign. This is sensible brand husbandry on Kraft’s side and on ours.”