Beyond Meat ditches New Year’s heavy lifting in favor of ‘literally the least you can do’
The brand pokes fun at classic New Year’s resolutions and promotes its new Beyond Steak product in a playful campaign featuring Schitt’s Creek star Rizwan Manji.
Plant-based foods brand Beyond Meat knows that New Year’s health resolutions can be hard to stay on top of. The gym is crowded, workouts can be grueling and, well, it’s just not that fun.
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It’s simpler – and more enjoyable, the brand posits – to reach for a more attainable goal, like eating more plant-based Beyond Meat.
Rizwan Manji, the Canadian actor best known for his role as Ray Butani on Schitt’s Creek, evidences this mindset in a new digital-first campaign, ‘It’s Literally the Least You Can Do.’
“Is reaching for your goals reaching its breaking point?” Manji asks viewers in the hero spot, reaching across an exercise ball for a plate of Beyond Meat tacos. “Does the thought of running a mile send you running for the couch?” he poses while munching on a bowl of Beyond Meat-topped noodles in the back of a pedicab.
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The star goes on to endorse Beyond Meat as an easy, heart-healthy option for consumers looking to improve their overall wellbeing.
Created in partnership with full-service indie agency Chemistry and directed by Rich Downie of production company Fox Den, the campaign promotes the brand’s new Beyond Steak product, which has been certified as a heart-healthy food by the American Heart Association. Beyond Steak is also the first plant-based meat to meet the nutritional guidelines of the American Diabetes Association’s Better Choices for Life initiative.
“January is a time of making and then often breaking resolutions, with health-related resolutions typically at the top of the list,” said Akerho ‘AK’ Oghoghomeh, senior vice-president of brand marketing at Beyond Meat. “We wanted to emphasize Beyond Steak’s heart-healthy credentials by showing consumers in a light-hearted way that there is one New Year’s resolution – eating healthy – that is both easy and delicious with our products.”
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‘It’s Literally the Least You Can Do’ is part of the brand’s broader ‘There’s Goodness Here’ messaging platform, which focuses on educating consumers about the benefits of Beyond Meat products. A previous installment of the platform, a campaign entitled ‘This Changes Everything,’ was also fronted by Manji.
Oghoghomeh hinted that consumers could expect more plant-based innovation from Beyond Meat in the coming months. “We are excited and proud to soon be introducing even more products that can enable consumers to continue eating the things they love, but do so in a way that’s better for their health and the health of our planet.”
The new integrated campaign includes TV, online video, social and digital placements.
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