Safefood’s Quirky Campaign Ensures a Safe Christmas for All Cooks

safefood and Folk Wunderman Thompson have launched a creative campaign following  the success of their summer meat thermometer campaign, this time with a focus on building safe habits among household chefs in the run up to Christmas, encouraging the use of meat thermometers when cooking the Christmas turkey. With less than 2% of people following basic food safety checks to determine if meat is cooked, using a meat thermometer is the only way to ensure that your Christmas turkey is cooked at 75°C.  

While the Covid-19 pandemic gave many home cooks the chance to upskill, this Christmas, safefood are asking chefs across the country to take their skills to the next level, with a meat thermometer as their safe cooking companion. The best cooks know that food should be savoured and celebrated, not feared. The campaign creatively positions the meat thermometer as every household chefs’ perfect companion when it comes to creating the perfect home cooked Christmas meal.  

Keith Lawler, creative director, Folk Wunderman Thompson said: The campaign challenges peoples’ conventional wisdom and ingrained behaviours surrounding the safe cooking of the Christmas turkey and inspires them to take the guesswork out of knowing when the turkey is done by using a meat thermometer. Leading with a food safety message about avoiding food poisoning was not going to deliver behavioural change. It required a creative idea that focused on what’s most likely to motivate all cooks, give a standout at the busiest time of the year for advertising, and do so in a way that positively reinforces safefood as every cook’s ally when they need them most. After his success in the summer, we brought back the Meat Thermometer Man and dramatized him as an unusual but helpful guest to invite to the Christmas dinner. The humour intends to make the number 75 stick in people’s memories as the golden number for safe and tasty meat. 

Dr. Aileen McGloin, director of marketing and communications, safefood, said: “We know from previous research that the established advice of checking to see if meat is piping hot, with no pink remaining and the juices running clear had very low levels of take-up. While these checks still apply when cooking turkey, using a meat thermometer adds that extra level of reassurance. With this campaign, we’re delivering clear and practical food safety messages for home cooks in a highly engaging and humorous way. This helps safefood cut through the noise at this time of the year and ensure home cooks have a safe and tasty turkey this Christmas.” 

The Christmas Meat Thermometer campaign is live across TV, VOD, Digital audio, Display, social media and in butcher’s shops.