Flipping the Familiar: Smucker’s and Jif Reinvent the PB&J
The J&PB delivers a familiar favourite in a completely unexpected way.
Bready or not, the J&PB is here. Smucker’s® and Jif® are putting a playful twist on one of the world’s most iconic sandwiches: the peanut butter and jam. Meet the J&PB — jam on top, peanut butter on the bottom.
What began as a lighthearted 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,” said 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 strategically 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 simple inversion of jam on top and peanut butter on the bottom was intended as a playful twist on a familiar classic. But the switch did more than change appearances. It unlocked a surprising new experience for some, showing that even the smallest twist can transform a classic. And get people talking about PB&J again.
“The creative approach from the beginning was simple: take this joke as seriously as we could,” said 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 explains: “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 nationwide, with phases designed to feed curiosity, spark conversation, and prove that even the simplest ideas can be completely reimagined.
Try it. Flip it. Debate it.
The J&PB. Try it for the first time.
About The J. M. Smucker Co.
At The J.M. Smucker Co., it is our privilege to make food people and pets love by offering a diverse family of brands available across North America. In Canada, we offer several of our iconic brands such as Folgers®, Smucker’s®, Jif®, Uncrustables®, Meow Mix® and Milk-Bone®, and support continued leadership in the baking category with our Robin Hood®, Five Roses®, Carnation® and Eagle Brand® brands. Through our unwavering commitment to producing high quality products, operating responsibly and ethically and delivering on our Purpose, we will continue to grow our business while making a positive impact on society. For more information, please visit jmsmucker.com.
About Leo Toronto
Leo Toronto is a creative consultancy using strategy, design thinking, communications and experience design to solve complex business challenges through creativity. Leo Burnett Canada is part of a global network of over 200 operating units and 96 full-service agencies in 85 countries and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Publicis Groupe (www.publicisgroupe.com).
Credits:
Title: J&PB
Client: Smucker Foods of Canada Corp.
Brand: Jif Peanut Butter and Smucker’s Jam
Product/Service: Consumer Packaged Goods
Type of Ad: OLV
Date of First Appearance: Sept 15, 2025
Client: Smucker Foods of Canada Corp.
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 Producer: Emma Du Boisson
Executive Producer: Janice Rebelo
Producer: William Trush
Producer: Brenna Gray
Post Producer: Emily Ryder
VP Group Account Director: Daniel Zimmerman
Account Director: Krzysztof Iwanicki
Account Supervisor: Bianca LaPenna
Digital Project Director: Thomas Degez
Manager, Print Production and Studio: Kevin Stephen
Web Developer: David Freedman
Senior Retoucher: Jon Krogh
Westside Studio
Photographer: Ryan Szulc
Executive Producer: Amanda Morrison
Agent: Jill Heintzman
Producer: Natalie D’Urbano
Eggplant Audio
Executive Producer: Nicola Treadgold
Producer: Nick Nadeau
Director: Roc Gagliese
Engineer: Nathan Handy
Alter Ego
Producer: Genna McAuliffe
Colourist: Andrew Ross
Colourist: Jonah Venneri
The Pub Productions
Director: Alex Chan
Executive Producer: Michi Lepik-Stahl
Pub Motion
Colourist: Ibnul Sarker
Flame Artists: Asher DiGiuseppe, Kevin Asis
Audio Engineer: Caleb Johnston
Audio Producer: Elyse Brunette
VP, Executive Producer: Laurie Kerr Jones
Co-ordinator: Larissa Rai
Media Partner: Spark Foundry
SVP Media Planning: Melissa Champagne
Group Account Director: Mandi Koenigsberg
Media Supervisor: Safia Ali
Media Planner: Mackensie Leszczynski
Assistant Media Planner: Isabelle Zarazua
Social Specialist: Fernanda Gonzales
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