Applegate’s founder and CEO, Stephen McDonnell, set out to change the way we eat meat. He came looking for a campaign to help build his brand and convince WholeFoods to give his organic and natural products nationwide shelf space.

 

We talked about some truly scary practices going on in farming today. We wondered what a mom must go through when a doctor says her obese child is now diabetic and that she needs to completely rethink her entire family’s diet. She has a lot of pressure on her and a ton of people telling her what she’s doing wrong. So, rather than tell, we wanted to lead her to healthy options she could feel good about discovering for herself. And she doesn’t need more “serious.” What if we could just help her laugh as she tackles this stressful experience?

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We explored what mattered to people seeking healthy eating options and research showed it was the absence of negatives. They didn’t want bad things in their food.

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Then we took on the meat with the worst reputation of all, the hot dog, and launched our campaign. How did it work out? WholeFoods happily granted Applegate shelf space all across the U.S. and our efforts won a Gold Effie award for marketing effectiveness.​

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Here's one of the ads from the campaign. Enjoy: