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August 16, 2009

Meat marketing...

Decades ago, when I was a kid growing up in Saskatchewan, I remember staring out the rear passenger window of my family's station wagon, watching the city roll by. The drive downtown was never very exciting, but this time it was different. There, high above the side of the road, a blazing white rectangle of light appeared, glowing in the evening dusk. I burst out laughing. Afterward, I looked for that sign every time we drove by.



Meat marketing is big, big, big business, but I cannot think of a single meat marketing strategy that rivals the brilliance of the (tragically short-lived) "Pork. The one you love." campaign. To this day, it is the only billboard that I can actually remember. You would think that, with all the money that goes into pork and beef and poultry councils, the industry could come up with another genius campaign.

Well, I think they finally have. This afternoon, Fawn went to buy some pork tenderloin from a local grocery store and discovered this little marketing gem:

Guaranteed Reduced Quality

Ingenious! Don't you just love to eat meat with "Guaranteed Reduced Quality"? I know I do. Who wants to eat that hoity-toity good meat when you can have the guaranteed not-as-good meat?

Who says there isn't truth in advertising? Everyone wins, really. The meat producers get to sell off their sub-standard meat, and the consumers are happy that their meat is guaranteed, no matter what the guarantee is. Maple Leaf Foods could learn a lesson from this.

My faith in the meat marketing industry has been restored.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Absolutely hilarious! I jusr can't decide which one gets the prize for "Biggest Meltdown in the Advertising Department Award" - but I think my vote is on the pork one. Or maybe not - these days when everything in non-fat, non-salt, non---, it's amazing someone let the "reduced- one" slip by.
My wordverfication is hyzvas - that sounds like a jiddish word for nonsense...

Megan said...

How the heck did the pork one get through whichever committee had to approve it?

Or have I just been working for the government for too long?

Megan said...

Hey, you got Posol'stvo at AAYSR, too! I really like the fact that he provides concrete suggestions about how to fix the things he sees as problems.

Posol'stvo, I know you're reading this, so I'll say that you gave me the kick in the pants I needed to fix the template problems that had been bugging me for a while. As of a few hours ago, I have a new design that I think works much better. I really do appreciate the time you spent on my review.

Yeah, I've made this all about me. WHAT OF IT? :)

Unknown said...

Yeah! It took a looooong time, but I appreciate the feedback. Don't know why the background isn't working. It's time to start looking for a new template (and posting few pictures and a few other things)!

Lindsay Niedzielski said...

I am also from Saskatchewan and remember that billboard....it provided hours of entertaining conversation, so thanks SaskPork!!!