Impossible Foods’ first campaign since its rebrand embraces meat culture, but with plants

Impossible Foods’ first campaign since its rebrand earlier this year is a new plea to animal meat eaters to consider plant-based versions. The campaign—which comes as grilling season heats up—features a backyard barbeque, hot dog eating contest and a burger joint to push the notion that “plants can be meat.” “People know that they should eat less meat but they want that emotional reaction,” said Leslie Sims, Impossible Foods’ chief marketing officer. “We are not a meat replacement, we’re meat too, just made from plants and we like to challenge that convention.” The ads are narrated from the perspective of a male meat eater, who presents a call to action for meat eaters to eat more burgers, hot dogs and meatballs, just made from plants. The brand earlier this year changed its packaging from teal green to red as a way to blend into the meat aisle and associate the brand with red meatiness. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs The creative The spots, from Erich and Kallman, have an Americana feel, with one scene showing a family-style meal of a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. The campaign also has several 15-second spots that feature different Impossible products, including chicken nuggets, burgers, hot dogs and sausage patties. “Meat lovers don’t have to be meat quitters,” Eric Kallman, co-founder and chief creative officer at Erich and Kallman, said in a statement. To showcase the products’ similar attributes “we presented Impossible meat being devoured in the same ways—with the same enjoyment—as traditional meat, challenging preconceived notions of what makes meat ‘meat’ and giving them a reason to try it themselves.” The insight The campaign’s tone is built on messaging lessons learned from Impossible Foods’ last campaign, “Making Meat History,” a 90-second musical spot about the history of meat from Terry Crews’ agency Super Serious that ran during last year’s Tony Awards. Part of that campaign featured side-by-side comparisons of a real burger and an Impossible one. The comparison ads resonated more with meat eaters, and the brand realized it could do more to highlight the similarities between traditional and plant-based meat. “We took everything from last year and did rigorous message testing, and our takeaway was that meat-eaters, in a consistent way, knew we were talking to them, and that we could lean on that message more,” said Sims. “For this latest campaign, we wanted to have a clear value proposition for them—you love meat, so why not try us and be better for the planet?” In the lead ad, the environmental message is very understated, with the lead male character merely acknowledging that “meat has problems.” The health messaging is more apparent—he urges people to “punch cholesterol in the face.” “The tone is supposed to have a light tongue-in-cheek humor,” Sims said. “We are talking to hard-core meat eaters, but we don’t want to be preachy.” Media strategy The campaign will run on linear and streaming TV, digital, social media and billboards in New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles. Media buys for the campaign were handled by Horizon Media. The campaign will debut during E!’s Met Gala red carpet show tonight—the Gala over-indexes with Impossible customers, according to the brand. “We will run ads during the red carpet and will have a presence on the ground at the Mark Hotel,” said Sims. “The Met theme this year is the ‘garden of time,’ so we will have the ‘garden of meat.’” The brand will serve Impossible sliders with brie and truffle aioli, and passion fruit barbecue Impossible chicken nuggets. Business climate Sales of plant-based meats have remained hampered in the last few years by consumers reverting to pre-pandemic eating habits, higher prices and continued skepticism around taste and texture, according to Mintel’s 2023 U.S. plant-based proteins market report. There may be potential for growth as inflation cools and if plant-based alternatives appeal to health-conscious consumers. According to Sims, Impossible will track by how much the campaign increases household penetration and the brand’s unaided awareness score. “We are at around 7% household penetration and 22% on our unaided awareness score,” she said. “We still have a lot of upside there, so while the primary focus is sales, we want to increase those other numbers.” According to CEO Peter McGuinness, privately-held Impossible Foods is considering an IPO or selling to another company in the next few years. Competitor Beyond Meat’s revenue fell 7.8% in the fourth quarter of 2023. Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here

Impossible Foods’ first campaign since its rebrand embraces meat culture, but with plants

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