• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, March 3, 2014

Perdue's antibiotic-free chicken, turkey and pork brand Harvestland has launched its first consumer campaign.

The "Eat Like Your Ancestors" campaign, from The Via Agency, employs food-related nostalgia. The creative features vintage-appearing photography from Stephen Berkman to promote the antibiotic-free brand, USDA Process Verified promise to moms who want to serve their families natural food. 

"We all romanticize about how our predecessors lived," notes Via creative director Amos Goss. "While we may not want to get rid of our smartphones," when it comes to food, "most people would like to go back to a time before over-processed became the norm."

Harvestland, launched in 2006, is the number-one brand of antibiotic-free chicken in the U.S., and the brand's other lines (which also include certified organic chicken products) are also seeing strong growth, according to Perdue. 

The campaign includes a microsite where consumers can find recipes from three time periods (between 1840 and 1950) and six different regions, as well as upload their own family recipes. 

Digital desktop and mobile ads that drive viewers to the microsite are slated to run all year on sites including Walmart's, All You magazine's, and magazine/brand sites owned by Hearst and Meredith. 

Print ads will run in People's March 10 and 24 issues, and in All You's April, May, August and October issues. 

Out-of-home ads will be in place for six weeks, ending in mid-March, in Westborough and Tewksbury, Mass.; Bethpage, N.Y.; Bentonville, Ark.; Milwaukee, Wis.; East Whiteland Township, Penn.; and Itasca, Ill.

The brand's Facebook page (its primary social presence, currently showing nearly 25,000 "likes"), and its Twitter and Pinterest assets, have been updated to integrate the campaign's creative and messages.

While antibiotic-free chicken currently accounts for only about 9% of the $9 billion to $10 billion fresh chicken market, it's the fastest-growing segment, IRI/FreshLook told NPR.org's The Salt.

Tyson Foods also offers an antibiotic-free line of chicken. On the restaurant front, Chipotle Mexican Grill has been using antibiotic-free chicken (and meat) for more than a decade; and last week, Chick-fil-A announced that it will phase out use of chickens raised with antibiotics within five years.

The Food and Drug Administration last year released voluntary guidelines asking farmers to limit their use of antibiotics in raising chickens to "medically necessary" situations, with the goal of significantly reducing or phasing out non-medical use within three years.