NotCo Takes Aim at Food Industry Logos with ‘Not So Happy Animals’ Campaign by GUT

Whether it's a fried chicken chain's grinning bird or an excited looking hog as the face of a BBQ joint, the food industry is notorious for promoting its products with images of smiling animals. 

Plant based meat company NotCo is spitting the hard truths behind the fake smiles in such logos as part of a new campaign called 'Not So Happy Animals'. 

The campaign's central film takes the form of a musical that manages to make its point in an ironic way without being over-the-top preachy. 

What's more, from today, anyone in the US can go to nothappy.com and scan animal logos commonly found in public spaces. When consumers scan the logo, it will be brought to life using AR and reveal a message about the animal in the form of a song. 

"We want to use this simple truth about how the industry promotes their products to put the spotlight on the source of our food and urge consumers to make informed choices," says Lou Mckerrow, VP & global head of marketing of NotCo. "We always use a proactive approach when it comes to advocating plant based alternatives. In this case, we are showing a disturbing truth in an ironic and even fun way, to get more engagement from our consumers and start a meaningful conversation."

The campaign was created by GUT, while the film was directed by Martin Jalfen and Mike Usandivaras via PRIMO Mexico, and animation was done by BITT. "As a challenger brand, we work on evergreen briefs with them [GUT] to make sure we are always in a 'why not' mindset: constantly searching for and creating the most disruptive communications with the biggest potential impact," says Lou. "We are old friends working together with the beauty that GUT and NotCo are both game changers, so it feels natural to partner. Gut proposes disrupting ideas and we are not afraid to take bold risks to make them happen, so we make a great team."

Despite the saturated market of plant based products in supermarkets today, Lou believes that NotCo is able to stand out thanks to its product and innovation process. That said, advertising also plays its part. "We are a food tech [company] that leverages proprietary AI to create our products. Our chefs, R&D and food scientists are constantly innovating to make food that is both delicious and also have more functional or nutritional benefits for our consumers.

"When it comes to advertising, we have high expectations because our communications have to be as disruptive as our products. We are not just looking to sell, we want to connect with our consumers, that's why this campaign is 100% social media and also interactive." 

When it comes to overarching marketing goals, Lou is focused on challenging what NotCo sees as outdated narratives about the food industry. The business also has ambitious goals for its US operations and 'Not So Happy Animals' is its kick off for a year of activity. " It will spearhead our efforts to increase consumer awareness of NotCo and our products and increase consideration for plant-based foods. This will be supported by more product focused initiatives throughout the year."