Any Fresher, and It Might be Banned in Boston

February 5, 2007

Any Fresher, and It Might Be Banned in Boston

By STUART ELLIOTT

A campaign for a seafood restaurateur is giving a new twist to the old saying on Madison Avenue that advertisers ought to fish where the fish are.

The campaign is for Legal Sea Foods, which began in Boston in 1950 and now has 34 stores in eight states plus Washington. The campaign, with a budget estimated at more than $3 million, takes a cheeky tone to make serious points about the freshness of seafood.

 Commercials, print advertisements, ads in movie theaters, posters and the Legal Web site (legalseafoods.com) carry themes like “If it isn’t fresh, it isn’t Legal” as they promise that Legal serves only “really fresh fish.” The playful tack is evident in headlines like “Right about now your dinner is having breakfast” and “A seafood restaurant so exclusive, 9 out of 10 fish can’t get in.”

The playfulness extends to a stealthy move in downtown Boston: next to a sign with directions to the New England Aquarium is a sign for one of Legal’s restaurants, which is close by.

(Let’s hope the sign does not feature a character from “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.”)

The campaign is the first work for Legal from its new agency, DeVito/Verdi in New York, which is known for its humorous ads for brands like Daffy’s, ecampus.com, Meijer and New York magazine. Legal hired DeVito/Verdi last May after not working with an outside agency for some time.

 The campaign is emblematic of a trend that has been gathering steam since it has become increasingly easy for consumers to zip through, zap or otherwise avoid ads. The goal is to infuse the ads with appealing entertainment values to entice the public to stick around long enough to at least hear the sponsor’s name, if not absorb the message.

 But it is difficult to make ads that are entertaining while at the same time effective in delivering a product pitch. Too often, the humor, emotion or other entertainment element is not sufficiently connected to the brand -- as any viewer of any number of Sunday night’s Super Bowl spots could tell you.

For Legal, the irreverent humor of its campaign is intended to help convey that the company is not “bound by old restaurant tradition,” says Roger Berkowitz, the president, chief executive and owner of the company.

“We march to a different beat,” he adds. “We can’t take a cookie-cutter approach.”

Part of that difference, Mr. Berkowitz says, is Legal’s focus on “quality assurance,” listing steps the company takes like running its own seafood processing plant as well “as our own lab where we test every single swordfish and tuna fish for mercury content.”

 “We’re most identifiable with high-quality fresh fish,” he adds, “and quality assurance plays a big role in that.”

A campaign that takes a serious tack to tell consumers Legal is “really serious about what we do,” Mr. Berkowitz says, “works on National Public Radio and classical radio, maybe -- and nowhere else.” Thus the tongue-in-cheek effort from DeVito/Verdi.

“We can’t afford a really great food photographer, anyway,” he adds, laughing.

In one television commercial, a fish swims back and forth, looks at the camera and utters a mildly biting double entendre. The words “Really fresh fish” appear on screen, along with the Legal logo.

In a second TV spot, two fish are swimming in an aquarium.

 “Hey, uh, have you seen Louie?” one asks. The other replies, “Nah, I haven’t seen him in hours.” The first one says, “Yeah, I wonder where he is.”

Cut to a man at a table in a restaurant, finishing his meal. This spot also ends with the Legal logo and the words “Really fresh fish” on screen.

 The radio commercials are produced like fast-paced mini-episodes of a quiz show or game show. A right answer elicits a bell ringing, while a wrong answer gets a rude buzzer.

The contestant in the first radio spot is “Chef Nigel of the Buckingham Fish Palace.”

“I spent years mastering the nuances of preparing seafood,” Nigel says. Buzzer.

“I spent months mastering the nuances of preparing seafood,” he says. Buzzer.

“I took some night classes, okay?” Bell.

Nigel then boasts his restaurant has five stars. Buzzer. Four. Buzzer. Three. Buzzer. Two. Buzzer.

“It’s not that bad,” Nigel says. Buzzer. “It could be worse.” Buzzer.

“Blimey, that’s ’orrifying,” he concludes. An announcer comes on to reassure listeners that they can trust Legal Sea Foods.

A second radio commercial features “Francois,” a maitre d’hotel with a comically thick French accent who proclaims, “It is of utmost importance to me everyone loves their meal.” Buzzer. “Likes their meal.” Buzzer. “Pays for their meal.” Bell.

Francois says his restaurant uses “the same fish as Legal Sea Foods.” Buzzer. “The best fish we can afford.” Buzzer. “We use fish.” Bell.

The third radio spot presents a captain of a fishing boat, speaking with a New England accent, who pretends his most recent fishing trip lasted just a day. Buzzer. Three days. Buzzer. “Two weeks, three days, 14 hours.” Bell.

“At least my fish is fresh,” the captain says. Buzzer. “Kind of fresh.” Buzzer. “Freshly frozen?” Bell.

“The work has a competitive, comparative tone to it,” says Andy Brief, the head of account services at DeVito/Verdi, “because of the fact Legal does things differently.”

“In considering all the things they do differently, the freshness has the most appeal,” he adds. “It’s the only quality dimension you can give to fish.”

Sal DeVito, creative director at DeVito/Verdi, says: “The focus on freshness and quality is not just words. These guys started as a fish company, and then went into the restaurant business. They never freeze anything.”

That will be stressed in newspaper ads for Legal the agency is planning to create this month, which Mr. DeVito describes this way: “We buy the whole page. There’s a fish at the bottom of the page. We circle the entire ad in red or black grease pencil and draw an arrow to the top of the page, where it says the date. The ad says, ‘Best served by.’”

The emphasis on differentiation is also useful, Mr. Brief says, because Legal is striving “to not feel like a chain” and “feel special in each of its locations.” To reinforce that approach, the restaurants are designed differently from each other.

The difference that difference can make is underscored in a conversation with Mr. Berkowitz when a reporter uses the word “chain” to describe the collection of Legal stores.

“I hate that word,” Mr. Berkowitz interrupts, adding that he much prefers “group.”

“It’s more fun to get the message out about how we’re different than about how we’re the same,” Mr. Berkowitz says.

Asked if that requires a campaign offering consumers something beyond pretty fish photos, he replies: “You want something a little more cerebral. Fish is brain food.”

The TV commercials are to appear on stations in the Boston, New York and Washington markets. The radio spots are to run in metropolitan New York.

The posters, which are styled like vintage paintings from magazines like Fish and Stream, are going up at transit stops and aboard commuter trains throughout the New York area.

If you like In Advertising, be sure to read the Advertising column that appears Monday through Friday in the Business Day section of The New York Times.

New York Times

February 5th, 2007

Article: "Any Fresher, and It Might be Banned in Boston"

By: Stuart Elliot