The Alternative Meat Co. makes plant-based meat alternatives. The fact that it looks, smells and tastes like meat doesn’t always convince carnivores. It’s also better for the environment and contains no cholesterol, which should impress them.

Social ad PR agency, Poem, was given the job of changing entrenched attitudes about meat vs meat substitutes and get them to try a food that’s outside their repertoire.

The agency guessed that people would get a kick out of being served a free kebab by comedian, Dave Hughes. So he was given a kebab shop uniform and an unconvincing moustache and became the star of a Punk’d-style stunt in which people got to try a “meat’ kebab that promised to ‘blow their minds”.

Dean Epps, general manager at Life Health Foods Australia, the creators of the AMC brand, commented, “Gone are the days of Australians eating a steak at every meal. With the nation becoming more health and environmentally conscious, this campaign shows how Aussies can still enjoy the experience of meat with plant alternatives.”

The video of the stunt began accumulating views immediately on Facebook. After three days, it had amassed more than 800,000 views, 2,500 comments, 6,000 shares and 8,000 reactions by both meat eaters and vegetarians.

Poem worked with video production company, Ideosphere, and the campaign is being supported by publicity, Facebook media, content retargeting, native advertising and influencer marketing.

Rob Lowe, co-founder of Poem, said, “Our aim was to convince meat eaters that there’s a great tasting alternative and to do it in a culturally relevant, entertaining and sharable way. It’s a great example of our paid, owned and earned media (POEM) approach to modern PR.” 

Credits:

Client: Life Health Foods

Creative, PR and social agency: Poem

Video production: Ideosphere