Sara Lee Food & Beverage is pushing its whole grain bread products with an out-of-home and sampling campaign to persuade people to make the switch.

Sara Lee last week took over a wheat field in Lawrence, KS, and used bales of straw to create a huge display that looked like a sandwich and had the tagline “Do the Switcheroo” The display, created by artist Stan Herd also used 23 tons of crushed limestone and 50 bags of red mulch.

The hope is the PR stunt will get media attention to relay the message of sending kids to school today with a whole grain sandwich.

The stunt is part of a nearly two-month long campaign, call the Great Grain Giveaway, in which Sara Lee is distributing 2.5 million loaves of Soft & Smooth bread nationwide via a mobile tour. The eight-city tour, which ends Sept. 8 at the Yellow Daisy Festival in Atlanta, teaches people about the benefits of eating whole grain and offers free samples of the bread.

During the tour, kids create their own lunch bag, and parents can participate in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich making contest. People will receive a free loaf of Sara Lee Soft & Smooth bread for attending.

In addition to the tour, bread, coupons and educational literature were also distributed at Minor League Baseball events and malls.

An online whole grain brain quiz and tour information is available at TheJoyOfEating.com, Visitors could also print out pledge cards in which they vowed to improve their diet by switching to more whole grains today as part of the Soft & Smooth Switcheroo: Take Your Whole Grain Sandwich to School Day.

Online marketing and PR supports the campaign. Snap Marketing handles the mobile tour and O’Malley Hansen Communications handles PR.

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