Welcome to the first in a series exploring marketing campaigns from brands that have a strong principle focus whether that’s environmental, humanitarian or ethical. For consumers, there is now an abundance of choice out there for products and services so for sustainable and ethical brands who want to promote their goods as well as their ethos, they need to make their mark when advertising like any other company. The ethically conscious companies that have appeared over the last decade have really strived to embrace new mediums and 21st Century advertising to get their message out there. Today, I will focus on one of the most successful but controversial campaigns to come out of 2020: Now that’s what I call M*** F*** Marketing.
Campaign Details
Company: Meatless Farm
Campaign: The M*** F*** Campaign
Date: August 2020
Product/Services: Meat-free burgers, mince and sausages
Mediums: TV and radio adverts, electric cars, social media and supermarket packaging.
USP: “Swearing” in adverts
The Leeds based company was founded in 2016 by Morton Toft Bech. Toft Bech, in an effort to reduce his and his family’s meat consumption, created a range of meat alternatives they found more enjoyable. The rise in veganism and vegetarian has resulted in a large shift in eating patterns over the last five years. This trend has continued in 2020. Studies by Mintel suggest that the Covid-19 pandemic has made a vegan diet more appealing to many Brits. With this growing trend in mind, Meatless Farms decided to create this campaign to encourage more meat eaters to take up at least one meat-free meal.
What’s good about the campaign?
Let’s just start off with the obvious, it’s a bold advert that certainly gets your attention. It’s always seemed fairly pointless to me to block out swearing as part of parental guidance. You basically say the words in your head when you read them anyway. But I know that’s a personal preference. Meatless farms use this knowledge to their advantage because the majority of us will think of the (you know what) swearword before we consider “meat-free”, “mother flipper” or the other slogans that the campaign is supposed to be obscuring.
The effect is compounded by Granny Annie who is the main star of many of the adverts. This juxtaposition of a sweet pensioner saying “Now that’s a M*** F*** burger” is the perfect addition to their tongue-in-cheek campaign. Whether it elicits feelings of shock, humour or “wow that’s a clever advert”, it’s safe to say it’s an advert most people will remember. In that way, it is an excellent campaign. You very quickly know the brand and you know what they do.
Besides the shock factor, it also does well at consistent branding both in design and messaging. You get a sense of the company as fun, memorable and to the point. It’s a fun campaign but the product is straight forward and you know exactly what you are getting.
What didn’t work so well?
As I said above, swearing in ads or at least suggestive swearing, isn’t always everyone’s cup of tea. No doubt Meatless Farm knew this when using this kind of controversial marketing. However, they were willing to go head with the benefits outweighing the risks. There is however no evidence to suggest that they have received excessive complaints and the company has not been investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority. Nor have they had any backlash from the livestock industry or the National Union of Farmers that have opposed vegan and vegetarian adverts in the past. It’s safe to say the campaign has done pretty well.
The verdict on M*** F*** Marketing.
The campaign has clearly worked well. With Meatless Farm products now stocked in most of the national supermarkets, sales have improved throughout 2020. In September Meatless Farm closed a $31m (€26m) funding round allowing them to invest more heavily in the US and EU markets. I would say this was a M*** F*** success! The main takeaway is that if a controversial marketing approach matches your branding then it’s okay to pursue it. It may alienate some potential customers, but you will never attract everyone to your company so focus on your niche.
If you are an ethical organisation looking to market your environmental, ethical or not-for-profit company, please get in touch with me. I love to work with businesses that have a strong ethos to make the world a better place. Let’s see how we can grow your business together.
