The peanut butter and jelly (or jam) sandwich, the PB&J, is a US classic. Smucker’s and Jif have reinvented it and created a taste surprise. Their version is the, J&PB, or jam and peanut butter sandwich – jam on top, peanut butter on the bottom.

What began as a light-hearted flip soon turned into something more. When the order of ingredients changed, so did the taste — a discovery that sparked debate and demanded a closer look. Intrigued, the team ran real-world taste tests. The results? Flipping the sandwich didn’t just look different; some people thought it tasted different. They had created something entirely new from the exact same PB&J sandwich flipped upside down.

“With the J&PB, the goal was to take something so familiar and make it feel new again,” stated Adam Zitney, vice president, marketing at The J.M. Smucker Co. “By flipping the order and putting Smucker’s Jam on top, we created a playful take on the PB&J that invites people to debate, laugh, and rediscover two of their favourite pantry staples in a fresh way.”

The campaign was teased ahead of launch with a spot featuring Toronto Blue Jays players, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer. Airing during game broadcasts and online, the ad seeded the idea of flipping a PB&J into a J&PB, with Guerrero Jr. proudly flipping his sandwich and naming it on camera – creating early buzz and framing the conversation before the national rollout

Leo Toronto developed the campaign, turning a playful flip into a serious creative exercise and uncovering a new way to frame one of the most familiar food pairings, challenging people to “try it for the first time”

“The creative approach from the beginning was simple – take this joke as seriously as we could,” commented Kohl Forsberg, executive creative director at Leo Toronto. “But as we went deeper, we saw that some people legitimately thought it tasted different. That gave us a bigger story, one that’s still having fun with itself, but also rooted in a potentially real discovery. And that just adds to the humour as we blur the line between the story and reality. All because we just flipped a sandwich upside down.”  

The New Taste, Explained:
In taste tests, people debated whether the J&PB was better than a traditional PB&J. To understand why, the team turned to Danielle Binns, a certified nutritional practitioner. She explained, “The J&PB creates a new neurological pathway in the brain, which creates a different perception of the sandwich.”

How to Make a J&PB:
1. Spread Smucker’s® Jam on one slice of bread.

2. Spread Jif® Peanut Butter on the other slice.

3. Put them together.

4. Flip 180°, so the jam is on top.

5. Debate if it’s different.
The campaign is rolling out across TV, digital, social, and live taste-test activations Canada, with phases designed to feed curiosity, spark conversation, and prove that even the simplest ideas can be completely reimagined.

Credits: 
Client: Smucker Foods of Canada Corp. [Jif Peanut Butter & Smucker’s Jam]
VP Marketing: Adam Zitney
Marketing Director: Leah Milne
Sr Manager, Integrated Media & Intelligence: Sarah Brown
Senior Brand Manager, Spreads & Snacking: Ximena Basabe
Assistant Brand Manager: Helya Nematkhah

Agency: Leo Toronto
President: Ben Tarr
Managing Director, Account Service: Natasha Dagenais
Chief Strategy Officer: Tahir Ahmad 
Chief Creative Officer: Angus Tucker
Executive Creative Director: Kohl Forsberg
Creative Director: Tyler McKissick
Copywriter: Steven Seltzer
Executive Producers: Emma Du Boisson & Janice Rebelo
Producers: William Trush & Brenna Gray
Post Producer: Emily Ryder
Account Team: Daniel Zimmerman,  Krzysztof Iwanicki & Bianca LaPenna
Digital Project Director: Thomas Degez

Photography: Westside Studio
Photographer: Ryan Szulc
Executive Producer: Amanda Morrison
Producer: Natalie D’Urbano

Music: Eggplant Audio
Executive Producer: Nicola Treadgold
Producer: Nick Nadeau 
Director: Roc Gagliese 

Post-Production: Alter Ego

Video Production: The Pub Productions
Director: Alex Chan
Executive Producer: Michi Lepik-Stahl

Post Production: Pub Motion

Media Partner: Spark Foundry