• by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer @mahoney_sarah, November 1, 2024

Johnsonville Sausage is reinvigorating its current “Keep it Juicy” positivity campaign with a hefty dose of anti-political messaging, with Scranton, Pennsylvania, as the epicenter.

With giveaway slogans like "Thank Sausage It's Almost Over" and "Sausage Stands with Scranton," the company tapped Brian (“The Office”) Baumgartner to man the grill.

The company is calling the effort part of its Swing State Sausage Support Plan, acknowledging that while swing state residents are all suffering from the barrage of political ads, Scranton has been hit hardest: Major campaigns have spent $81 million on ads in the city, or $155.75 per voting-age adult. The company says that, on average, that’s about 223% more than other "Blue Wall" cities like Detroit, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh, and “more political spending per voter than New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Phoenix and Las Vegas combined.”

Jamie Schmelzer, senior director of marketing at Johnsonville, tells CPG Insider the stunt stems from pure empathy. The company is based in Wisconsin, another swing state, and employees there are fending off the onslaught of ads. “We know how it feels,” he says.

Johnsonville promoted the event, which was held at the Lackawanna County Courthouse, with an ad spot. The company also gave away T-shirts with messages like “I wanna lacka political ads” and “I survived $81 million in political ads, and all I got was this sausage.”

Johnsonville says the effort draws on America’s vast disregard for political ads: Research conducted for Johnsonville by Harris Polling finds that 72% of Americans agree that they don't like political advertising, 51% block political messaging, and 59% dread this election season.

The idea is to build on the “Keep It Juicy” campaign introduced earlier this summer, using ads voiced by Vince Vaughan to lament democracy “gone sideways,” offering “barbe-q-and-a” as a tasty alternative to bitter (and sausage-less) Town Halls.

“The election is important, and we certainly weren’t making light of that,” he says via email. “We provided free sausage to bring a little reprieve and togetherness to hundreds of people who likely don’t agree on every issue, but sure seemed to agree $81 million in political ads was a lot, and pretty exhausting.”