• by Steve Ellwanger , July 7, 2021

Calling all “grassholes.”

This call to action from jerky and meat-stick marketer Country Archer Provisions is meant to be taken as a “badge of honor” as opposed to a pejorative term.

It’s communicated via a slightly off-color national ad campaign that touts the benefits of grass-fed beef.

The target audience is health and wellness seekers in search of better food choices.

“That’s a pretty broad territory,” Country Archer vice president of marketing Jeff Wong tells MarketingDaily.

“There are some who are extremely health and wellness involved and then there’s others who are at the start of their journey. They see the campaign in different ways.”

People who always choose grass-fed or organic food options and may be committed to a keto-friendly diet “look at grassholes as a badge of honor and a way to celebrate the hard work and choices they’ve made,” says Wong. “It’s a personal reward that you’re making a better choice.”

For those who are just setting out on a better health-and-wellness path, “the campaign is provocative and draws them in. By drawing them in it then serves to educate them about the grass-fed point of difference and brings them into the category in a more approachable way.”

Provocative it is, considering this spot from Honeymoon Productions that’s running on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

A diverse cast—adults young and old—proclaim themselves “grassholes.” An elderly woman implores viewers not to be “a colossal a..hole” but to “share my video!”

It’s the first national ad campaign from family-owned Country Archer.

“People are still learning about our brand,” says Wong. “Knowing the advertising dollars we have to spend against some of our kind of goliath competitors in the category, we knew we needed to be disruptive and provocative to make an impact.”

The company promotes its jerky and beef sticks as healthier than competing brands because of its ingredients, and better for the environment because of how its beef is sourced.

As opposed to confining cattle to feed lots, the company uses such regenerative methods as rotational grazing. “It’s a way to move animals through pastures in a natural way that allows soil to recover,” says Wong.