IF BREAKFAST IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY, WHY ISN’T THIS AD ANY BETTER?

Ah, Jimmy Dean. I remember all those commercials from my childhood where Jimmy Dean would sit on a porch swing and dispense his corn pone wisdom. And this ad seems like a bad extension of that.

Here’s what I would’ve done:

1) Written a different headline. Frankly, the current one insults my intelligence. Microwaveable sausage is the key to more family time? Please. “Regular” sausage—at the most—takes like eight minutes to make. And if you’re going to make eggs and slice all that fruit to boot, how much time are you really saving? Yet another example of someone trying to be clever and not thinking beyond that.

2) Connect more with Easter. I’m not sure how many families have a big Easter breakfast (mine didn’t), but I might try to think of a better way to speak to them. Maybe by promoting the idea of having a wholesome family breakfast. I think there’s something to suggesting that the kids have something other than chocolate bunnies for their morning meal. To me, that just seems a little more “real.”

3) Found a different background. Seriously, what’s a breakfast plate doing sitting in a field? The sun I sort of get, but grass?

4) Developed a different tagline. I don’t know how long Shine On has been around, but the only time it’s made sense for me was in the Jimmy Dean spots where that guy in the sun costume was energizing people by feeding them breakfast. Here, it makes no sense. My former boss, Kelly O’Keefe, had a pretty good rule about slogans that I’ve tried to adhere to. His thinking—and I’m paraphrasing here—is that taglines shouldn’t be a payoff to an ad, but be substantive in and of themselves.

5) Driven to something. Seeing as I would’ve probably promoted a better-than-chocolate approach, I most likely would’ve driven to JimmyDean.com for a promotional Easter tie-in—be it brunch recipes or something a little kookier (like how to make your kid’s Easter eggs look like piglets). Anyway, if you’re going to make a big deal out of Easter breakfast, why not go—pardon the pun—whole hog?