St. Pierre Bakery Brings French Flair to Traditional Bread

French bakery brand St. Pierre has launched its new brand campaign 'Eat avec respect', creating a bold and ownable long-term brand platform that affirms St. Pierre’s differentiated and premium offering.

This is the first work born of the collaboration between Fold7 and St Pierre, following their appointment earlier this year. The team have set a new and ambitious strategic direction to aid continued growth of the leading bakery brand, developing a creative platform with enough flexibility to work across markets. Premiering in the UK, the launch represents St Pierre’s first mass market campaign and is their debut into television.

At the heart of the idea is St Pierre’s premium positioning, as stand alone in comparison to traditional bread products. Brioche is elite, it’s sweeter, lighter, and fluffier than everyday ‘bread’.

The satirical new ads play on the brand’s Parisian heritage with a fresh take on what it means to be French. From art to romance and fashion to food, it’s widely accepted that the French just do it better - and they know it too.

This bold new campaign combines the assuredness and confidence of the French attitude, while highlighting the unique space in which St Pierre sits. The creative is deliberately not a straight take on Frenchness but delivers French flair with a self aware wink, offering stand out for St. Pierre with humour and playfulness.

The film opens in an authentic Parisian café bar, where a waiter serves a delicious looking lobster roll. A chic French lady sat nearby is casually scrolling her social feed. We suddenly hear her cry out “Noonnn!” as she sees a post from a British bloke at a BBQ, pouring a river of ketchup into his St. Pierre bun. Her reaction triggers a cascade of increasingly melodramatic outbursts in the café, as everyone from a poodle to a newsreader, and even a painting hung on the wall, display their horror at this violation of French culture. Their anguish and despair culminate in a plea for more serious appreciation: “Eat avec respect”.

Print and digital work focuses on three tearful French characters who all beg, “For France’s sake”, to “eat chic, not tragique”, by staying away from the 'plastic cheese', and understanding that “It’s brioche, not bread.”

Dave Billing from Fold7 said, “French superiority in most areas of culture, whilst true, is a gift to comedy. It’s been a treat to work with St Pierre to harness the beauty, drama and histrionics of the French soul, and create a distinctive, ownable long-term platform for the brand that we hope will assure their triumph in the world’s bread aisles.”

Megan Harrison, global VP marketing at St. Pierre, said, “The St Pierre brand is at a very exciting stage of development, primed to build brand awareness in line with the phenomenal distribution wins we’ve secured in the UK over the past two years. Fold7 captured the personality of our brand and have delivered a creative that perfectly encapsulates the French flair and challenger spirit for which our brand is known. What’s more, it’s a concept we’ve tested in multiple markets so we can be confident that the new creative will work internationally, as our brand grows.”  

Fold7 worked alongside St Pierre’s in-house marketing team as well as with social agency Shoot the Moon, and design agency Ambush on the campaign, with consumer media buying handled by PHD.