General Electric's new campaign features a refrigerator that 'on the move' 15 Jun, 2012, 0517 hrs IST,

New York Times NEW YORK: In a telephone prank passed down by generations of children, the caller asks, "Is your refrigerator running?" and, after an affirmative response, the caller says, "Then you better go catch it." Consumers might be reminded of that chestnut when they see a new campaign from General Electric that features a refrigerator that is, in fact, on the move. For a new online video series, "Freshpedition" in late April, GE hoisted one of its new French door refrigerators from its factory floor in Louisville, Ky., onto the bed of a pickup truck, where it was attached to a generator. Then the company sent Ben Sargent, the chef who is the host of "Hook, Line & Dinner" on the Cooking Channel, and Justin Berger, a GE refrigerator engineer, on their way. The series, captured by a film crew and shot in the style of a reality show, follows the two as they drive about 2,000 miles to Texas to reach Ron Thompson, a wildlife biologist who studies mountain lions and other species. Because Thompson spends months at a time conducting field research with no access to fresh food, the mission was for the chef to surprise him with a freshly prepared meal. Sargent procured provisions for the meal from farmers and fishermen over the course of a week along the way, including peach ice cream in Alabama, alligator meat in Louisiana and squash blossoms in Texas. At each stop, Berger, with the deliberateness of a scientist handling specimens, placed items in the compartment of the refrigerator. The Web series is by BBDO New York, which is part of the BBDO Worldwide unit of the Omnicom Group, with production by Acne Studios. It was directed by John Feist, whose credits include "Survivor," and Kate Hall. A commercial that promotes both the refrigerator and the Web series will be introduced Wednesday, when the first episode also will be posted to Freshpedition.com. Timothy Matis, the advertising director of GE Appliances, said that the road trip was "the ultimate torture test," but, befitting a refrigerator campaign, admitted he had to warm up to the plan. "I'll be honest with you. This idea made us very nervous," said Matis. "It took a while to embrace such a visionary concept."

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Back to previous page 15 June 2012 New Web Series from GE Tests Refrigerator and Freshness

GE French door refrigerator travels 2,000 miles to bring fresh food to a place where fresh cant be found Freshpedition sweepstakes will have one winner receiving a new GE French door refrigerator and others taking home $100 gift cards

LOUISVILLE, Ky. June 15, 2012 (NYSE: GE) The new GE French door refrigerators are engineered to push the limits of fresh. To prove it, GE loaded up a refrigerator from the factory in Kentucky in the back of a truck and traveled with an engineer and a celebrity chef more than 2,000 miles to a place where fresh cant be found. The ad campaign, Freshpedition, began June 14 and includes TV, digital, webisodes, and content on Freshpedition.com as well as social media elements such as Pinterest and Facebook. As GE invests $1 billion in new products by 2014, the company is commercializing the launches with its largest integrated advertising plan and one-year spend in its history in a fresh way never done before. Freshpedition a campaign to launch the new GE French door refrigerators is focused on the fastest growing category in refrigeration. According to AHAM, an industry trade group, bottom-freezers account for 25 percent of refrigerator sales, up 11 percent since 2007. The new GE French door refrigerators offer the most advanced ice and water technology on the market today, including industry-first features such as Handsfree Autofill and a hot water dispenser. The refrigerators' TwinChill evaporators and temperature-controlled drawer can keep foods fresher longer. Shot in the style of reality TV, the commercial and webisodes, created by BBDO and directed by celebrated reality TV directors John Feist and Kate Hall, follow a GE French door refrigerator and generator tethered to a pickup truck on a road trip from Louisville (where all of the French Door refrigerators will be assembled) to bring fresh food to wildlife biologist Ron Thompson in the field where he lives primarily on canned food for months on end. Chef Ben Sargent of Hook, Line and Dinner on the Cooking Channel and GE engineer Justin Berger stop at locally owned and operated alligator farms, ranches, farmer stands, and a dairy to pick up the freshest food around the country to prepare a surprise fresh meal (view sample recipes) for the wildlife biologist when they reach Texas. Freshpedition stops for fresh food include:

Gagel Truck Farm (Louisville, KY) Bibb lettuce Fox Hollow (Crestwood, KY) Eggs AA Farm Creamery (Millbrook, AL) Goat cheese Todd's Produce (Verbena, AL) Peaches and peach ice cream Crawfish Crazy (Covington, LA) Crawfish Wall's Alligator Farm (Springfield, LA) Alligator meat French Market Crawfish & Seafood (Mandeville, LA) Red snapper Boggy Creek Farm (Austin, TX) Vegetables

Taylor Longhorn Ranch (Fredericksburg, TX) Ground beef

The journey will be curated on www.freshpedition.com starting June 14. The tale will be told through five webisodes and freshpedition.com will also include:

Tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram photos from the road from Chef Ben and Justin A timeline and map of the journey Recipes from Chef Ben Links to French door refrigerator information pages and a 3D product gallery Sweepstakes to win a new refrigerator through a Pinterest campaign

Wheres Ron Sweepstakes In addition to the advertising, GE is also launching a sweepstakes called Wheres Ron. One lucky winner who guesses where Ron is located will win a GE Profile French door refrigerator. GE is giving away a $100 Visa Prepaid gift card to one lucky winner every day from June 15 June 24, 2012. Consumers can visit the site daily to guess where Ron is and enter for a chance to win! SEE OFFICIAL RULES FOR DETAILS https://www.geappliances.com/facebook/wheres-ron/pop_rules.htm Read how this exciting campaign was covered in The New York Times. A Web Series for G.E. Tests a Refrigerator and Freshness

IN a telephone prank passed down by generations of children, the caller asks, Is your refrigerator running? and, after an affirmative response, the caller says, Then you better go catch it.

Ben Sargent, right, a chef who is the host of Hook, Line & Dinner on the Cooking Channel, and Justin Berger, a General Electric engineer, on their trip from Kentucky to Texas to promote a line of G.E. refrigerators. Consumers might be reminded of that chestnut when they see a new campaign from General Electric that features a refrigerator that is, in fact, on the move. For a new online video series, Freshpedition" in late April, G.E. hoisted one of its new French door refrigerators from its factory floor in Louisville, Ky., onto the bed of a pickup truck, where it was attached to a generator. Then the company sent Ben Sargent, the chef who is the host of Hook, Line & Dinner on the Cooking Channel, and Justin Berger, a G.E. refrigerator engineer, on their way. The series, captured by a film crew and shot in the style of a reality show, follows the two as they drive about 2,000 miles to Texas to reach Ron Thompson, a wildlife biologist who

studies mountain lions and other species. Because Mr. Thompson spends months at a time conducting field research with no access to fresh food, the mission was for the chef to surprise him with a freshly prepared meal. Mr. Sargent procured provisions for the meal from farmers and fishermen over the course of a week along the way, including peach ice cream in Alabama, alligator meat in Louisiana and squash blossoms in Texas. At each stop, Mr. Berger, with the deliberateness of a scientist handling specimens, placed items in the compartment of the refrigerator. The Web series is by BBDO New York, which is part of the BBDO Worldwide unit of the Omnicom Group, with production by Acne Studios. It was directed by John Feist, whose credits include Survivor, and Kate Hall. A commercial that promotes both the refrigerator and the Web series will be introduced on Wednesday, when the first episode also will be posted to Freshpedition.com. Timothy Matis, the advertising director of G.E. Appliances, said that the road trip was the ultimate torture test, but, befitting a refrigerator campaign, admitted he had to warm up to the plan. Ill be honest with you. This idea made us very nervous, said Mr. Matis. It took a while to embrace such a visionary concept. Engineers at the company also had concerns about the stunt. The engineers said, What are you talking about? Youre going to bounce it around in a truck? We didnt test for that, Mr. Matis recalled them saying. Youre going to put it in the Texas heat? We didnt test for that. The collapse of the housing market put a chill on refrigerator sales. Manufacturers shipped 8.9 million units in 2011, down from 10.4 million in 2007, a drop of 14.4 percent, according to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. The most common reason consumers buy a new refrigerator or dishwasher is that the previous one broke or performed poorly, with moving to a new home the second mostcommon reason, according to Mintel, a market research firm. In third are kitchen remodeling or simply acquiring a fridge that is more energy efficient, larger or with more features. Models with refrigerators and freezers side-by-side were once the standard, but 2011 was the first year refrigerators with the freezer on the bottom exceeded side-by-side models in number of units shipped. Refrigerators with freezers on the bottom, known as bottom mounts, accounted for 26 percent of the refrigerator market in 2011, up from 14.9 percent in 2007, according to the appliance association. New G.E. models have two doors on the refrigerator section, and a freezer unit below. Among features that the company says are a first for the category are a hands-free water dispenser in the exterior of the door that senses when a glass or pitcher is filled and stops, a water and ice filtration system that removes pharmaceuticals sometimes found in drinking

water, and a hot water dispenser for tea or oatmeal. Temperature and humidity can be customized in refrigerator drawers to keep a variety of foods fresher for longer, the company says. The new campaign grew out of an assertion by the brand that this fridge keeps food fresher for longer than anything else, said Scott Rodgers, a senior creative director at BBDO. We said, How are we going to prove this? and we said ultimately this has to be put to a test, Mr. Rodgers continued. It has to be full of food and delivered to someone who hasnt had fresh food for a long time. Freshpedition borrows a page from movies like The Odd Couple, with the humor drawing from the differences in characters. Among the reasons that Mr. Berger, the G.E. engineer, was cast opposite the chef was that he was open about not being discriminating about food and not dubious about going anywhere besides a supermarket to buy food. In the first episode of the series, Lettuce Begin, after Mr. Berger and the chef, Mr. Sargent, sample Bibb lettuce moments after it has been pulled from the ground, Mr. Berger is underwhelmed. I tasted the lettuce and it didnt taste like butter to me, Mr. Berger tells an interviewer. He said it would taste buttery. Lettuce is lettuce. The new series will be promoted widely with online advertising and through Facebook and Twitter accounts of both the brand and Mr. Sargent. Mr. Rodgers, of BBDO, said the production team secretly interviewed the wildlife biologists wife to determine his favorite foods, and then brought her, and the couples adult son and daughter, along with them as part of the surprise dinner. For his part, Mr. Thompson was told only to expect a visit from a crew from General Electric, a multinational conglomerate. We just said it was something related to the G.E. brand, Mr. Rodgers said. We could have shown up with a jet engine.