LAKELAND, Fla. — At Publix Super Markets, playing with food — especially ethnic food — is a good thing.
That's because the retailer is using food as art in a print ad campaign targeting West Indians. Each image in the ad shows birds and popular foods of the Bahamas, Barbados, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago.
Each part of the bird is made from food. The Jamaican ad, for instance, shows the hummingbird, commonly called “Doctor Bird,” made from peppers, avocado, coffee beans, coconut, aloe, bok choy, plantains, okra and green onion.
Supported by a radio campaign, the print ads are running in select newspapers in South Florida.
Publix started catering to the large number of West Indians living in South Florida about three years ago. It works closely with Caribbean distributors to enhance its West Indian product offering, which currently includes cornmeal porridge, sugar cane juice, Caribbean soda, fish-fry mixes and jerk sauce, according to chain spokeswoman Maria Brous.
“We want to be reflective of our customer base in our product selection, personnel and community involvement,” Brous told SN.
