Recipes for Success
Someone recently treated the agency staff to a homemade loaf of fromage de tête, or headcheese. Resembling leftovers from the TV reality show Fear Factor, the gelatinous mass of indescribable ingredients became an office curiosity as people pondered, “What’s it made of?” When it comes to most prepared dishes, even headcheese, most of us share a common hunger for recipes and advice on preparing the foods we eat.
This craving was the premise for a consumer education program that was part of the integrated marketing campaign Bozell created years ago for Pork: The Other White Meat. Throughout this initiative, food editors at major newspapers and magazines across the country were fed a steady diet of pork recipes, photography and special materials addressing the issue of “food literacy.”
Two programs especially effective in whetting the appetite of food editors involved:
- A national consumer quiz in which two-thirds of Americans surveyed lacked basic cooking knowledge even though they considered themselves “excellent” or “very good” cooks. Among a wealth of press materials prepared for food editors was A Guide to The New Food Literacy cookbook filled with pork recipes and tips to help people learn cooking basics.
- A selection of recipe cards to guide consumers through their pork purchases using the simplest common denominator of all meat cuts: shape. Each recipe card carried descriptions of different pork shapes, preparation information, sample recipes and menu suggestions.
Both of these educational programs were successful in generating an ongoing smorgasbord of culinary features in the Lifestyle and Food sections of major newspapers and magazines that contributed to a dramatic increase in consumers associating pork with white meat.
As for increasing the literacy of our staffers concerning the making and consumption of headcheese, the overwhelming consensus that day in the office was that some things are better left unknown and uneaten.
This post was written by: Tom Giitter