UN Unilever NV

National Progressive Cooking Challenge Celebrates Hispanics' Love of Cooking MIAMI and ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., March 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- With more than 70 percent of Hispanics reporting confidence in their cooking abilities, Unilever and ten of its food brands ask Hispanics to step-up-to- the-plate and accept the challenge by participating in the company's Desafio del Sabor (The Flavor Challenge). Desafio del Sabor, a national progressive cooking competition for consumers puts the spotlight on Hispanics' love of home cooking and cooking for fun. This campaign is also the largest ever Hispanic outreach effort for Unilever's food brands. (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060308/NYW169 ) Unilever and its brands, Ragu, Knorr, Hellmann's, Lipton Tea, Lawry's, WishBone, Lipton Sides, Country Crock, Lipton Noodle Soup and Skippy are supporting the Desafio del Sabor with a major multi-media, integrated communication campaign that includes, network TV, local TV, local radio, public relations, online, Hispanic festivals and events, retailtainment at storefront events, print, FSI, POS, coupons and promotional items. Unilever will also give shoppers a copy of VivaMejor(R), a healthy living and recipe booklet. Unilever has forged a strategic relationship with Univision and several other media outlets for this campaign. The company is also collaborating with The Art Institutes, through its Culinary Arts Program to supply bilingual culinary students to help provide skilled demonstrations and tastings at storefront events. Unilever will award $50,000 to support scholarships to Hispanic culinary students at The Art Institutes. Desafio del Sabor comes on the heels of Unilever's expansion of its multicultural marketing operations. In the past year, the company has created an internal multicultural business unit and is investing heavily in understanding Hispanic consumers' shopping, cooking, eating and general lifestyle habits. These changes have brought Unilever among the nation's top corporations targeting Hispanics. "Desafio del Sabor is very exciting for us because it brings together everything that we have been doing for the past year. With this campaign we are aligning our consumer insights, our brands and our market outreach to effectively reach Hispanic consumers," said Ricardo A. Martinez, director multicultural marketing, Unilever United States. "That old saying about getting to the heart through the stomach rings especially true for Hispanics. Hispanics spend nearly twice as much time preparing home-cooked meals than other consumers and they do it because they want to and because they desire to please their families. Desafio del Sabor speaks directly to the heart of Hispanics." To enter Desafio del Sabor, Hispanic consumers submit recipes that include at least one of the participating Unilever brands at storefront events across the nation. Selected participants will then compete by cooking in the Desafio del Sabor regional challenges taking place at major Hispanic festivals in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago and Houston. The winners from each of these regional events will compete in a nationally televised cook-off on two Univision networks. Complete registration and contest details can be found at http://www.desafiodelsabor.com/. The grand prize winner will win $10,000, a trip for four to the "Premio Lo Nuestro a La Musica Latina" award show with VIP and Red Carpet treatment, the opportunity to appear on national television after the contest and have a featured recipe in Unilever's upcoming recipe book. Additional cash prizes will be awarded to other winners and contestants. About Unilever: Unilever (NYSE:ULNYSE:UN), one of the world's largest consumer products companies, aims to add vitality to life by meeting everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care. Each day, around the world, consumers make 150 million decisions to purchase Unilever products. The company has a portfolio of brands that make people feel good, look good and get more out of life. In the United States these brands include recognized names such as: Axe, "all," Ben & Jerry's, Bertolli, Breyers, Caress, Country Crock, Degree, Dove personal care products, Hellmann's, Lipton, Knorr, Popsicle, Promise, Q-Tips, Skippy, Slim-Fast, Snuggle, Suave and Vaseline. All of the preceding brand names are registered trademarks of the Unilever Group of Companies. Dedicated to serving consumers and the communities where we live, work and play, Unilever in the United States employs more than 15,000 people in 74 office and manufacturing sites in 24 states and Puerto Rico - generating more than $13 billion in sales in 2005. For more information visit http://www.unileverusa.com/. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060308/NYW169 http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Unilever CONTACT: Maritza Reveron, +1-215-498-7991, , or Natalie Judd, +1-203-605-9515, , both for Unilever Web site: http://www.unileverusa.com/ http://www.desafiodelsabor.com/

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