The Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association continues to meet with the Saskatchewan Roughriders football club after beef producers raised concerns about a television commercial filmed during a game.
An A&W ad currently running shows people wearing Rider gear trying the restaurant’s meatless Beyond Meat burgers outside Regina’s Mosaic Stadium.
Beef producers and others complained that it looked like the football club endorsed the idea of eating less beef.
However, the club said it wasn’t involved in the production of the ad. A&W is a corporate partner and can use the team’s logos.
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“While the commercial does show Roughrider fans tasting the product and giving their opinions, we want to assure your members, and all of Rider Nation, that the advertisement does not represent any reduction of support by the Saskatchewan Roughrider Football Club to specific beef or agriculture industries in our great provinces of Saskatchewan,” chief brand officer Anthony Partipilo said in a letter made public by the SSGA after the organization met with team officials.
Partipilo said the team met with A&W and was assured that its ads are not intended to convince people to stop eating beef or eat less of it but to draw other customers into its restaurants.
“We understand this is a very sensitive issue for your membership and for Canadian ranchers and we apologize for any distress this may have caused,” he said.
SSGA general manager Chad MacPherson said plant proteins have always competed with meat, but the marketing campaigns undertaken by A&W and others in recent years have often misrepresented beef and misinformed consumers.
The restaurant chain is also often criticized for buying imported beef; it says it can’t source enough Canadian beef that meets its requirements.
“People were kind of disappointed,” MacPherson said about the reaction from beef producers, many of whom are Rider fans.
He said the SSGA wanted to meet with the Riders, rather than A&W, to find out how the commercial came to be made and how much the team was involved.
MacPherson said team officials who he met with weren’t aware of the sensitivities surrounding the issue but have been open to discussion, and that will continue.
Contact karen.briere@producer.com
