Breaking the Mold: Impossible Foods' Bold Approach to Plant-Based Marketing

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Impossible Foods recently made the best plant-based burger ad we’d ever seen. Thirty seconds of high-octane marketing for meat-free-meat grabbed us by our lapels and ended, improbably, with a man exploding through a door on a dirt bike and blasting into the hills.

The ad is a masterclass in how storytelling can change product perception and consumer behaviour. At Brighter Future, that’s our bread and butter. 

So let’s break it down to see what made it so good.

1. Character Development: The ad host is a masculine man, built like a wrestler, whose meatiness embodies the brand thesis. He inhabits a world of traditional American imagery like county fairs and cookouts, and directly appeals to hardcore meat eaters, the very audience most sceptical of plant-based options.

2. Humour and Irony: With macho humour, the campaign flips the table over on anti-meat tropes. It’s not afraid of meat: it just tells meat-eaters to "solve the meat problem" by eating more plant-based meat.

3. Cultural References and Settings: The ad’s settings are classically meat-centric and focus on where meat is celebrated, from a backyard family barbeque to a hotdog-eating contest. Meat-eating is a cultural experience, and the ad says Impossible products won’t compromise it. It practically shouts it.

4. Inclusive Messaging: The ad aims for a wide audience with family scenes and diverse actors in age and background. Viewers get the message that eating plant-based food is a step forward for all of us.

5. Health and Environmental Messaging: The ad subtly connects health issues related to overconsumption of meat with a simple, unpreachy solution: eat Impossible Foods meat instead.

Impossible Foods' campaign is an incredible piece of narrative marketing. They’ve crafted a story that speaks directly to a reluctant audience by aligning with their values and lifestyle, and we’re sure it’s going to succeed. 

From all of us at Brighter Future, thanks for reading. For more breakdowns of brand storytelling that works— and inspiring stories from organisations that want to do good in the world— watch this space. 

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