LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – All it took was a goofy amateur cook, a burning barbecue and a recipe book, and Alberta pork producers had an award-winning television commercial.
Last year was the first time the Alberta Pork Producers Development Corporation took a risk and bought TV time. The results were such a success that neighbors Roy and Biff will be cooking again this spring, flogging the Barbecue Sensations cookbook compiled by the pork producers.
Promotions manager Roy Kruse wrote the commercial and with a budget of $125,000, used amateur actors drawn from friends who had a sense of humor.
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The commercials first aired on Edmonton and Calgary stations last spring.
“They told us if we got 10,000 responses we could consider it a success,” said Kruse at a recent pork producers district meeting in Lethbridge.
They had 26,000 responses in the first week and phones at the promotions office were ringing at 4 a.m. from viewers who wanted the cookbook.
At the end of the campaign the pork group had answered 32,000 requests for cookbooks.
The commercial ultimately won a national CBC internal award for most effective commercial.
A Christmas campaign using the same format of neighbors cooking pork was equally successful, so this spring they’ll repeat both ad spots and pray the commercial is again a success, said Kruse. This year the group will print 62,000 cookbooks.
Cooking tips
Barbecue Sensations offers tips on storing pork, food safety, cuts, nutritional information and recipes that include instructions on how to barbecue a whole hog. The campaign was spurred by new pork products made from leaner meat.
“As pork has become leaner we have to educate the consumer on how to cook it properly,” said Kruse.
The group is also developing new products to lure consumers away from chicken snacks. These include breaded pork strips, meat pies and pork prime rib.
“People have been chicken-winged to death in the last 10 years,” Kruse said.
