Plant-Based Food Marketers Imagine Their ‘Got Milk?’

A movement is afoot among players in the plant-based food space to form a coalition to boost sales and combat stepped-up attacks from Big Agriculture, with an ultimate moonshot being the category’s version of iconic ad series like “Got Milk?” and “Beef, It’s What’s for Dinner.”

But what, exactly, would such a campaign look like? 

Though executives don’t expect the group to formally launch until 2024—with time then needed to enlist creatives and produce work—some are already considering what kind of message the industry should collectively send to the American consumer.

Opinions at this early stage are nearly as plentiful as the brands in the jam-packed space, perhaps underlining how challenging it may be to get consensus from the CEOs, founders and marketing teams who would eventually participate.

Battling Big Ag

Maybe no issue is more pressing than this: Should the industry, now suffering from public perception problems and slumping sales in faux meat, go bold and directly counterattack Big Beef and Big Dairy?

To that end, one exec envisioned a remake of the famous “Truth” anti-smoking campaign that could dig into factory farming, slaughterhouse conditions and other admittedly dark behind-the-scenes food safety issues. 

It’s yet to be determined if others would support an approach that aggressive, with most execs leaning into education-based efforts that would aim to dispel myths about plant-based eating and convince more flexitarians to give it a try.

Senior leaders and industry watchers readily ticked off a “what not to do” list that included making consumers feel guilty for not eating veggies and demonizing cows for their environmental footprint. Continuing to promote their Silicon Valley companies as food tech? That’s another non-starter because, as an exec said, “Nobody wants to eat technology.”

Read on for a sampling of insight and advice.

Get back to nature

Jenny Stojkovic, founder of the influential Vegan Women Summit and general partner at VC firm Joyful Ventures, thinks Beyond Meat may be on the right track with its recent bucolic campaign, “There’s Goodness Here,” set at a North Dakota faba bean farm: “From the consumer point of view, farmers are a trusted group,” she said. “Go for an agriculture theme.”