Oliver spot celebrates work of Sainsbury's bakers

LONDON – Jamie Oliver joins a team of bakers in his native Essex in the latest Sainsbury's commercial featuring the mockney chef.

The advertisement, created by Abbot Mead Vickers BBDO, promotes the quality and freshness of the bread baked in Sainsbury's 330 in-store bakeries

Bakers working the early shift at the Rayleigh Weir store in Essex show Oliver how Sainsbury's bakes its bread from scratch, from proving to kneading and baking.

The ad also highlights the fact that Sainsbury's bakers make bread throughout the day, putting paid to the myth that bakers get up at dawn and finish work at lunchtime.

Sainsbury's has cut the price of 300 of its bakery products to emphasise quality and value and tie in with the advertisement.

It follows another recent spot -- praised as one of the best in the Oliver campaign -- in which the chef checks out the ingredients of Butcher's Choice sausages.

Dominic Warne, the brand marketing manager at Sainsbury's, said: "The traditional view is that bakers are finished by lunch. However, the ad shows that this is no longer the case at Sainsbury's.

"Teams of bakers are working continuously throughout the day baking bread so customers can buy it when its fresh, at whatever time they want it."

The campaign includes radio advertising, direct mail and in-store signs, plus free sampling of bakery products throughout September. The ad will break next Wednesday.

Sainsbury's rehired Oliver in May for a fifth year. In 2002, the 'Naked Chef' and 'Jamie's Kitchen' star boosted sales by as much as £1.1bn, according to the supermarket.

The ads have received a mixed response, simultaneously voted the most irritating and most memorable in Marketing's annual polls.

Oliver caused controversy when his wife Jules was photographed shopping at rival supermarket Waitrose.

Sainsbury's spent £56m on advertising last year, more than its rival Tesco, which spent £46.5m. Tesco recently announced it was dropping its long-running advertising character 'Dotty' played by Prunella Scales, in favour of a 'back to basics' approach.

The ad was art directed by Mike Durban at AMV BBDO.

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