• by Steve Ellwanger , January 19, 2023

*“Never let a good crisis go to waste” is an apt way to describe Just Egg’s leveraging of avian-flu-induced egg price hikes and shortages to introduce people to plant-based substitutes.

Last Sunday, Just Egg ran a full-page ad in The New York Times addressing the price inflation and out-of-stocks caused by history’s worst avian flu outbreak while suggesting a breakfast burrito morning meal.

“The best eggs don’t come from chickens; they come from plants,” the ad stated.

Two days earlier, Just Egg brought a shorter version of the message to markets with a one-week activation with the Volta Media Network—whose out-of-home screens are built into Volta electric-vehicle chargers.

Ads on 829 screens positioned solely in grocery store parking lots carry Just Egg product images and the message “Just Egg is in stock. Plants don’t get the flu. So reach for the really good eggs made from plants.”

The New York Times was chosen for the reach and composition of its audience, according to Just Egg head of global marketing Tom Rossmeissl.

“New York Times readers are a very good fit for our flexitarian target consumer. They tend to be more urban, more educated -- and they’re more likely to buy plant-based foods,” Rossmeissl tells Marketing Daily.

Referencing the impact of avian flu also gives people a third reason beyond environmental concerns and health to consider plant-based eggs.

Consumers are "able to make a connection and think in a deeper way about where their food comes from and add another advantage of a plant-based food like ours that they maybe hadn’t thought of,” adds Rossmeissl.

As previously reported, U.S. Department of Agriculture data indicated that as of Dec. 27 of last year, approximately 43.3 million commercial layer hens had been “depopulated” due to highly pathogenic avian influenza in 2022.

*Near the end of World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is credited with saying “Never let a good crisis go to waste” after forging an alliance with the leaders of the Soviet Union and United States that led to the formation of the United Nations.