General Mills is running its first ever television ads for Larabar, a nutrition bar brand the Golden Valley-based company bought in 2008.
Larabar is a line of fruit and nut bars that plays in the burgeoning natural snack bar market. It's the sort product that touts "simple ingredients," an increasingly big selling point for health-minded consumers.
A one-minute Larabar TV ad set to the tune of "Little Boxes" – a satirical ode to "ticky, tacky" tract housing -- began airing Monday.
The lyrics to the folk song, made famous by Pete Seeger in the 1960s, are rejiggered to reflect food products: "Little boxes in the food store . . . filled with ticky, tacky," etc.
The song is performed by the indie pop band Lucious. The Larabar campaign also contains several 15-second TV ads.
Usually General Mills sticks to social media and digital marketing for its organic and natural brands. But it made the leap to more expensive mass media as the nutritional snack bar market takes off.
