Stand out from the crowd
Impossible Foods is a sustainable food company that’s upstaging the meat industry — and it’s not afraid to say so. As waves of new competition flooded the sector, the company wanted to strengthen its position as an industry frontrunner.
Impossible Foods needed to show its assertive spirit. We developed a full campaign toolkit, from messaging to visual design, to position Impossible Foods as the leader of the plant-based pack.
It’s not you, it’s meat
We seized upon a statement that Impossible Foods were toying with: it’s not you, it’s meat. While reflecting the company’s irreverent tone, this also used the language of relationship break-ups to convey the thought of ending things with animal meat.
We developed this into a full campaign idea, a foundation for all the visuals and messaging. We named the campaign “Fresh Meat” to position Impossible Foods as the fresh alternative to “dead” animal meat and reflect the company’s refreshing attitude.
Human After All plugged in seamlessly with our in-house creative team, making the process collaborative while also challenging our normal way of working. The ultimate result was work that would not be possible without Human After All’s partnership.
Lend a helping hand
Our campaign visuals centred around a set of illustrated hands, each with a distinctive character — from a tattooed hipster to a small, energetic child. In ads the hands pulled Impossible Foods’ products into the spotlight, using animated movements that we created with MOWE animation studio.
Fresh Meat isn’t just about breaking up; it’s about moving on. We wanted to make sure we showed that boundary-breaking shift. So as the hands pulled products into view, we used contrasting colour backgrounds to signify the shift from colourless animal meat to vibrant Impossible Foods.
A message impossible to miss
We gave our campaign ads a bold, one-two messaging punch. Short, sharp break-up lines prompted people to ditch the animal meat holding them back, then a simple sign-off pushed them to move on to better things. Each Impossible Foods’ product had its own break-up prompt — such as “Dump the beef. Get with Impossible.”
But the campaign also needed a strong line that could work across the board and capture the call to action. We landed on “Ditch dead meat” — both a play on breaking-up with a good-for-nothing ex and also a literal reference to animal products.
Time to get cooking
The Fresh Meat campaign launched with a bang on 19 January, the date when most people break their New Year’s resolutions. “Ditch dead meat. Get with Impossible” became the flagship line, featured in the bio on all of Impossible Foods’ social media. Meanwhile, the animated hands came to life in digital ads across the US.
With its vibrant visuals and irreverent tone, Impossible Foods’ new campaign challenged preconceptions and caught the eye of curious shoppers. Animal products are past their sell-by-date. Impossible Foods is Fresh Meat.
