Safeway, Colorado Root for the Homegrown

LOS ANGELES Safeway and the Colorado Department of Agriculture's "Colorado Proud" program are set to break a television and print campaign highlighting locally grown produce.

The effort includes a 30-second TV spot created by the in-house advertising department at Denver's 9News, KUSA, which is the only station that will run the ad. The commercial, which breaks tomorrow, is tagged, "Better for you. Better for Colorado. Colorado Proud." It opens as dawn breaks and Colorado farmers awaken to harvest their fields. The ad also shows a Safeway truck near a wheat field and Colorado farmers sitting at picnic tables. A farmer delivers the line, "Whenever you buy fresh produce from Safeway, you're really buying it from all of us. So, we're all here to say thanks." The other farmers join him in saying, "Thanks."

In addition to drawing attention to local produce, the spot is meant to salute Colorado farmers, said a representative for Safeway in Denver.

The summer-long campaign also includes print ads that will run in weekly grocery inserts and in-store signage aimed at drawing attention to the local produce items available at Safeway's 121 Colorado supermarkets.

Spending on the campaign was undisclosed. The client, which is based in Pleasanton, Calif., spent $38 million on ads last year for its Safeway brand stores, and $13 million for the first three months of this year, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMR.

Safeway is a founding member of Colorado Proud, a promotional and advocacy group that helps consumers, retailers and restaurants identify Colorado produce and encourages them to purchase those agricultural products.