Fast-food franchise Denny's is challenging rivals in a campaign to strengthen the company's "real" breakfast dominance by boldly busting the so-called "fake" breakfast.

Denny's is using ad agency Publicis Mid America to develop an aggressive integrated communications campaign called, "Don't Fall For Fake." Mobile is part of that effort.

"We are really reinforcing a real breakfast leadership," said Elizabeth Geer, senior director of advertising and merchandizing for Denny's. "We looked at our core strengths, and the way we differentiate ourselves is through fresh ingredients."

The campaign targets men and women ages 25-40 and spans national broadcast, public relations, in-store merchandise, humorous banner ads, mobile alerts, offer-based online games, video ads, paid searches and music polling playlists such as the consumer's top breakfast songs.

Denny's partnered with traffic.com for the mobile part of the campaign. Traffic.com gives drivers real-time traffic updates via text messages. At the bottom of each of the texts that traffic.com sends out are embedded Denny's advertisements.

"We are looking to engage the consumer," Ms. Geer said. "We will have some radio, online and email marketing as well as the mobile ads embedded at the bottom of traffic.com's mobile alerts.

"When people are hungry and thinking of food after work or even on the way to work, we will remind them of us and our real breakfast, right when they get their traffic update," she said.

Denny's is a leading family dining chain with nearly 1,500 company and franchised restaurants in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Guam, Mexico, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.

Ms. Geer said that Denny's is known for its breakfast. In fact, 50 percent of diners order breakfast meals regardless of what time of the day it is.

Denny's competitors include International House of Pancakes, Cracker Barrel, McDonald's and Wendy's.

Food fights
The new campaign depends mostly on TV spots starring tough guy Tony Sirico, formerly of the HBO show "The Sopranos." He's out to bust the fake breakfast with his "Don't mess with me" attitude.

In one of the TV spots, Tony pays with fake money for breakfast at an unnamed fast food restaurant. His rationale is fake money for a fake breakfast.

In another TV spot, Tony and an upset man are featured behind a two-way mirror, along with a police officer. They are viewing a lineup of fast food workers in various crazy-themed costumes. The man picks out the offender that sold him a fake breakfast.

The Denny's commercials will run during Fox's "American Idol" and ABC's "Grey's Anatomy."

Denny's is also introducing a new Spanish-language TV campaign titled "De verdad verdad" (Really Real).

The overall campaign will run for about ayear.

The results of the campaign will be measured by traffic to Denny's restaurants and sales.

"Consumers tell us that real breakfast goes beyond the food -- it's about the total experience," Ms. Geer said. "More important, they believe Denny's delivers a real breakfast experience.

"'Real breakfast' is a call to action not to settle for wrappers and Styrofoam," she said. "Denny's is the place to get your eggs made to order just the way you like brought to you on real dishes with real silverware, served with a smile."