Sara Lee Food & Beverage, Downers Grove, Ill., has launched its first-ever branding campaign for the company's bakery, dessert and deli lines. Titled "The Joy of Eating," the $20 million to $30 million multi-media push's main thrust is a series of TV spots featuring people savoring their food.

The company also features a new website, www.thejoyofeating.com, which posts recipes based on Sara Lee specialties such as pound cake, bagels and coffeecake, and offers tips on how to add personal touches to the company's bakery products.

Sara Lee will add "The Joy of Eating" visuals to point-of-purchase, packaging, bakery delivery trucks and other marketing vehicles. Consumer promotions are slated to begin later this year.

While the campaign shows quick ways to dress up Sara Lee items, the ads focus on consumers' emotional ties to food rather than convenience.

"People may be busy but they genuinely don't prefer functional food they can eat in the car," said Peter Reiner, Sara Lee Brands' vice president. "The campaign breaks the convention of food advertising today by shifting the emphasis from 'functional food as hero in a chaotic world' to positioning all of our Sara Lee products as better, emotionally enjoyable and tasty choices. It highlights the quality, taste and versatility of our food and celebrates people adding their own easy touches to our products."

The umbrella campaign dovetails with Sara Lee's year-old turnaround plan to streamline its portfolio. Fiscal 2006 results are mixed: Sara Lee Corp's net sales fell 1% to $15.9 billion for the year ended July 1, owing largely to divestures and currency exchange rates. But Sara Lee Food & Beverage sales rose 4% to $2.53 billion for the year, including retail bakery sales, which rose 3% to $1.9 billion in North America.