Meat Loaf won't go for vegan rebrand in Frankie & Benny’s spot
Italian restaurant chain Frankie & Benny’s has subverted the inescapable barrage of vegan marketing stunts with a humourous spot featuring an increasingly enraged Meat Loaf refusing a veggie rebrand.
Meat Loaf shows disdain vegan rebrand in Frankie & Benny’s spot
The ad sees the Frankie & Benny’s PR team pitching the artist with a hair-brained scheme to change his name to ‘Veg Loaf’ - all to underline its new vegan menus. Adding to the magic, the creative emulates the original pitch to the artist; Meat Loaf refused to change his name, which in turn, became the focus of the spot.
On the work, from recently launched PR agency Idea Farm and Lucky Generals, Elise Ash, director of strategy and brand at Frankie & Benny's, said: "Funnily enough, our new video isn't far off the original real-life pitch to Meat. While we couldn't convince him to rebrand to Veg Loaf, we're delighted he's the headline act for our new vegan menu to help spread the word on the benefits of tucking into our meat-free dishes."
Lewis Davey, founder and creative director at Idea Farm, branded it the agency's first big piece of creative and identified the signing of Meat Loaf as a signal of intent. “Credit to our clients at TRG for being brave and ambitious enough to do it - and it was a pleasure to team up with a brilliantly talented team at Lucky Generals. Hopefully this is the start of a big 2020 for Idea Farm.”
The work underlines eight new entries on the menu including Vegan Loaded Skins, Vegan Hot Dog and the Calzone Vegano - joining Frankie's vegan classics like the Viva la Vegan Burger, Plantballs Italiano, and the No-cheesecake.
It comes during a busy time in the vegan calendar 'Veganuary', kickstarted last year at the same time with the Gregg’s vegan sausage roll and since emulated by many. This campaign subverts the slurry of meat-free marketing landing in 2020. Just earlier this week, Asda ran a dark plant-based product campaign about compromise.
Idea Farm works with the Restaurant Group, Gymbox, and Photobox.
Vote for the campaign below in the Creative Works.
