Plant-Based May Cause: Trade Body Launches First Vegan Industry Ad Campaign

Some of America’s leading vegan food companies are part of a first-of-its-kind marketing campaign for the plant-based industry.

Do not ingest plant-based food… if you enjoy the taste of average to mediocre food.

That is the call to action of a new, first-of-its-kind ad campaign backed by some of the leading companies in the US vegan sector.

The marketing drive is coordinated by the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA), and aims to highlight the benefits of plant-based eating in a quirky, deliberately contradictory way.

Devised with marketing agency AKQA Bloom, the first activation is called ‘Plant-Based May Cause’, featuring a 60-second spot with a 10,000-word leaflet that was present all over Climate Week NYC last month. The fast-paced, playful narration challenges the misconceptions and underlines the benefits – some obvious, some ‘unexpected’ – linked to a vegan diet.

It’s the first time leading brands in the industry have joined forces for a commercial campaign at this scale, with partners including The Kraft Heinz NotCo, Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, TiNDLE Foods, Bel Brands, Daiya, Prime Roots, Mellody, Stockeld Dreamery, Armored Fresh, Milkadamia, and more.

“For years, the Big Meat and Dairy industries have been planting misinformation, so we’ve chosen to plant joy and deliciousness instead,” said AKQA Bloom co-founder and executive creative director Jean Zamprogno. “A better future for us and our planet begins with a shift in consumer behaviour, and no industry is better than ours to lead the way.”

Leaflet straddles the comical and the critical

The campaign ad comprises footage from a branded food truck the PBFA organised with chef Nina Curtis and the 15 companies at Climate Week NYC, where New Yorkers were offered free samples of plant-based dishes.

The video notes that eating plant-based may cause several effects, narrated in a way that feigns negativity. But these implications include vegan hot dogs causing you to love sausages more than your dog, non-dairy cheese making you want to only eat cheese for the rest of your life, and plant-based nuggets having no effect whatsoever – because “you’ll never realise they’re plant-based”.

The leaflet, attached to products from participating companies at Climate Week NYC as well as in grocery stores, is a seven-point guide underscoring the impact of eating vegan food. Some of these points are earnest, the others just fun.

For example, the leaflet lists “trouble sharing shareables” and “a crowded home at all times” as positive outcomes, as well as “severe urges to grill every day” and increased visits from your mother-in-law as side effects. But it also explains the true environmental and social benefits of plant-based food, from lower water consumption, land use, greenhouse gas emissions, and exposure to contaminants, to greater food access, better soil health, and a more robust local economy.

The guide also features several recipes to specifically highlight the fact that preparing vegan food is “actually very similar” to dishes with conventional meat and dairy. These include breakfast tacos, mozzarella sticks, mac and cheese, and chia pudding.

Doubling down on the tongue-in-cheek yet impactful messaging, one of the lines in a section outlining the best places to eat vegan food reads: “Try having plant-based yogurt in your apartment, which, if it’s in NYC, is already so tiny that it literally has a tiny carbon footprint. So, if you’re enjoying plant-based food in that ridiculously small kitchen/bedroom/living room/dining room, you’ll be doing double duty when it comes to reducing land usage.”

A collaboration long in the making

The Plant-Based May Cause campaign also has radio spots, while the leaflet will be handed out digitally and physically. The food truck is serving as a mobile platform to educate people about the health and climate benefits of plant-based food.

“This campaign marks a key moment for our industry. By coming together, for the very first time, as a diverse coalition of brands across 20+ plant-based food categories, we are engaging and inspiring a growing community of consumers around a singular marketing platform,” said PBFA CEO Rachel Dreskin.

“By collaborating with AKQA Bloom and our members, we’re demonstrating how strategic, unified messaging can broaden the industry’s influence and realise its potential and myriad of benefits.”

Alternative protein companies have been trying to collaborate on a joint marketing drive for a while now. Last year, it was reported that vegan businesses were hoping to form a coalition in the style of Got Milk? and The Incredible Edible Egg – two of the most successful consumer campaigns in modern US history – although some marketing experts expressed doubt over whether this could actually materialise.

While the PBFA’s campaign isn’t a result of this effort, it’s still a strong signal of togetherness in the industry. This is important considering that meat analogue sales dipped by 12% last year, and investments were down by 24% – in 2024, funding has become an even bigger challenge for plant-based startups.

Elsewhere, some are working on a vegan checkoff programme, a take on the meat and dairy industry approach that collects government-backed funds from livestock producers to fund promotional campaigns.

UK-based Vegan Food Group’s Matthew Glover (who is also the co-founder of Veganuary) and Indy Kaur, founder of vegan consultancy firm Plant Futures, are spearheading this initiative. “We are looking to level up with this, consolidate funding and create a campaign which can fairly compete and give consumers a reason to choose to eat plants and not animals,” Glover told Green Queen in February.