'Meat Preacher' Evangelizes for Impossible Foods

Who says swearing off meat will sap your energy? Impossible Foods’ chiseled, mustachioed plant-eater seems raring to go in fresh spots from Erich & Kallman.

Raring. Heh.

His spiel features succulent morsels such as: “When the world says too much meat is bad, and we should eat less of it, we say, ‘No, world. We should eat MORE!’ Because now, we can turn plants into burgers and hot dogs—even meatballs!”

Dude delivers his lines while racing through various scenarios. He slaps beef-burgers to the ground, ruins a frankfurter-eating contest and reps the brand with breathless style.

Sharp editing and Ted Jonas’ full-throttle funny performance really sell it.

“We went with him because he looks like he eats meat,” E&K creative chief Eric Kallman tells Muse. “And he has the perfect balance of likability and bravado to be the man proudly leading the charge and spreading the good news.”

Jonas puts the imp in Impossible. Or something. 

A “Meat Preacher” pitchman was created “to grab the attention of hardcore meat eaters” and ask them to be better to both their body and the planet,” Kallman says.

This continues the agency’s penchant for wacky character-driven schtick.

“They can help embody what a brand is all about. For example, Realtor.com thinks of themselves as a trusted guide to first-time home buyers so we created ‘The House Whisperer’ to be exactly that,” Kallman says.

“A character can also be a wonderful way to communicate what would otherwise be pretty mundane information. This is something that our German character Otto does so well for Meineke.”

“When done right, nothing can be more valuable for a brand than creating IP that people remember and like,” he says.

For Impossible Meats, “The spot is wall-to-wall dialogue as we cut through four different scenes, so we had to come prepared and capture longer and shorter versions of every line in every scene,” Kallman recalls.

“You can time out a script like this 100 times and you’ll still never know until you get into the edit exactly how long transitions between scenes and things like driving a dirt bike through a door will actually take,” he says.

“Luckily, Ted is a pro, able to slow down and speed up both physical performances and dialogue from take to take. With a less dialed-in talent, we might not have gotten everything we needed.”

Spots will run during the NBA Playoffs, the Olympics and The Bachelor. Digital and OOH elements are in the mix, plus social components with shoppable recipes.