A new advertising campaign by Alberta Beef Producers will focus on love of the land and family.
Called Raised Right, the $400,000 campaign is designed to promote beef and remind the rest of Alberta that the land and animals are being taken care of by 30,000 dedicated farm families with deep roots in the prairie soil.
Four new personalities were selected to replace the internationally recognized RancHers, three women who represented Alberta beef producers for the past seven years as they talked about the value of beef.
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“We can’t say enough about the work they did as ambassadors for us,” said Roy Eckert, chair of ABP’s promotion committee.
This time round the organization is pursuing a broader theme. Murals standing seven metres high portray four ranchers at work. Beef promotion and videos about each of the four can be seen at raisedright.ca.
The new approach goes beyond the value of eating beef to stay healthy. The four ranchers talk about where they live, what they do on a daily basis and how beef is a good, wholesome product. They also point out that the work is hard and there are struggles, but also that the good days far outnumber the bad.
Campaign organizers selected the four representatives from a cross section of full-time producers, looking for men who could speak about the industry with a common sense approach. No actors or models were wanted, Eckert said.
“We wanted to have guys who are working as producers,” he said.
“We wanted to recognize the work that’s done on the farms and ranches.”
Dean Kennedy of Pincher Creek, who with his wife, Tammy, and three children raise commercial and purebred Angus cattle, is the first to be portrayed on a roadside mural with his chaps and rope. The former National Hockey League defenceman retired full time to his ranch in 1995 and wants people to know what life is like for all agricultural producers, no matter what commodity they grow.
“We need to promote what we do. It doesn’t matter if you are a pig producer, or grain farmer or rancher,” he said.
“We need to get the message across as primary producers in all of agriculture …. What we do is a very noble career choice.”
Also carrying that message will be Brian Lane and his seven-year-old daughter, Holly, of Claresholm. The Lane family won the national environmental stewardship award in 2007.
Colin McNiven of Cessford and another former NHLer, Brian Sutter, who owns Atlasta Angus of Sylvan Lake, were also selected.
