Award-winning actress and rapper Nora Lumâknown professionally as âAwkwafinaââis the voice of a new campaign for vegan brand Lightlife. The actressâs distinctive, raspy voice is set against nature scenes to establish the parallels between lifeâs simple pleasures and the ingredients that Lightlife believes plant-based food should be made with. The 30-second spots, with the tagline âsimple ingredients for a full life,â will air across a variety of television and social media channels in North America.
âAt Lightlife, we believe that eating delicious, clean food and keeping things simple are the keys to living well,â said Adam Grogan, Chief Operating Officer for Lightlifeâs parent company, Greenleaf Foods, SPC. âThings like nature, friends, laughing, and good, clean food help us thrive and leave us fulfilledâthatâs the spirit of âSimple Ingredients for a Full Life.ââ
Awkwafina gets behind Lightlifeâs vegan meat
Awkwafinaâs Lightlife campaign comes as the vegan brandâwhich makes products such as burgers, hot dogs, sausages, deli meat, and most recently, chickenâbegins to make bigger moves into the foodservice sector. In August 2020, Lightlife partnered with international fast-food chain KFC to offer a full vegan Plant-Based Chicken Sandwich at all of its locations across Canada after a wildly successful trail of vegan chicken options at one location in Mississauga, ONâwhere it sold over a monthsâ worth of sandwiches in six hours.
Last month, the brandâs vegan chicken found its way onto the menu of Canadian pizza chain Pizza Pizza, where vegan chicken sandwiches and nuggets are now available at more than 400 Pizza Pizza shops across the country. The Plant-Based Chickân Sandwich, available in either Classic or Spicy, features Lightlifeâs breaded vegan chicken fillet, pickles, and vegan mayonnaise on a toasted bun. The Plant-Based Chickân Bites are available in servings of 10 or 20 and come with one of Pizza Pizzaâs plant-based dipping sauces, which include Texas BBQ, Sweet Chili Thai, Buffalo, or Mild flavors.
Lightlifeâs âcleanâ vegan meat message
Awkwafinaâs Lightlife campaign is supported by one of the largest media investments in the companyâs history. It follows a year-long effort by Lightlife in what it called a âclean breakâ campaign to remove unnecessary ingredients from its products in an effort to differentiate itself as a âreal food company.â Last year, the company published an open letter to plant-based meat companies Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, via a full-page ad in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, commenting on both brandsâ product ingredients. Signed by Lightlife Foods President Dan Curtin, the companyâs letter states it has had âenoughâ of âthe hyper-processed ingredients, GMOs, unnecessary additives and fillers, and fake bloodâ and that it is âmaking a clean break from both ⊠âfood techâ companies that attempt to mimic meat at any cost.â
Lightlife is using this âcleanâ campaign to establish a differentiating factor between its products and those made by competitors, but Beyond Meat has a different take on the topic. âThereâs a difference between being processed and having a process,â a Beyond Meat spokesperson told VegNews. âWe are incredibly proud of our process which takes simple plant-based ingredients and puts them through a system of heating, cooling, and pressure (the same three steps to make pasta) to re-create the basic architecture of meat. We never use GMOs or bioengineered ingredients. It is well-known that the majority of food consumed today is processed in some way before it reaches consumers (including commercially raised meat) and itâs ultimately up to the consumer to decide which process theyâre more comfortable with.â
Impossible Foods pointed out that Lightlife targeting its plant-based competitors could be attributed to the fact that it is owned by Canadian meat giant Maple Leaf Foods, which acquired Lightlife Foods in 2017. â[This] campaign leans on spurious arguments typically used by the meat industry: [an] attack on Impossibleâs products not based on their indisputable quality, nutrition, wholesomeness or deliciousness, but based on the number of ingredientsâa logic-defying concept with zero relevance to health or product quality, intended to distract consumers from the inferiority of Lightlife and Maple Leafâs products,â Impossible Foods said in a statement published via online platform Medium.
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Source: Vegnews.com