In this episode of Tier Rankings, we’re reviewing vegan food ads from famous vegan food brands. Watch the full video here!
We’re rating nine different vegan food ads based on the performance that they would get with social media.
All right, so we’re going to be ranking these nine different video ads based on their acquisition, not brand. So what that means is the likelihood that the audience is actually going to click through and purchase the product, not having a good brand or a good memory of the product and then purchasing it later on.
Vegan Food Ads: Tier List
We’re going to be ranking these into four different tiers. The top tier is they Squashed The Competition. The second is Berry Nice. Third is Medi-Okra and fourth is there’s Mushroom For Improvement for them to be able to get the audience to take action with the particular ad.
Beyond Meat
The first one is Beyond Meat and basically what it’s showing is a burrito. The text says “Wake up to a ‘better for you’ breakfast. No cholesterol, GMOs or antibiotics. Powered by plants.”
Speaking about that really fast, it’s a short video. It’s not visually telling a story or anything better about their product. It just happens to be a burrito that they’re showing which visually, it’s okay.
Then when it said “no cholesterol, GMOs or antibiotics,” the visual is weak. The text is cool but the visual doesn’t tell me anything. Then it says “powered by plants” and it’s still showing the same burrito. The copy is good, but this visual is not matched to the copy.
You are one tier away from mushroom for improvement. This may actually be the worst, the lowest Medi-Okra. All right.
California Almonds
So let’s get to California Almonds. By the way, I’m listening to everything with the sound off. Some of these are going to be sound off relevant. The reason for this is so it can be a better listening experience for you. 85% of the audience, at least through social feed on Meta, watch videos with the sound off. That’s going to be a little bit different though when it comes to Instagram Stories, and then it’s going to be much different when it comes to TikTok, but it’s also for your convenience as well.
All right. So California Almonds. Funny. There’s a gentleman sitting in an almond suit holding almonds. The one bash about this is there’s no captions. The audience isn’t able to visually fall along with what they’re saying, but I did watch it previously and it’s pretty funny. He’s holding almonds and saying that there’s a time and place for almonds in every situation.
There’s also a guy in a hammock. He hands him the almonds and the guy eats the almonds. It’s pretty good. Great selling points. It lets you know, just buy some almonds. You always find a value into it.
So the benefit that they’re pushing forth is there’s always a time and space for almonds, and it does a great job. I’m going to put this as Squashed The Competition. The only thing really missing is captions but it’s a really clever idea, and the cleverness is able to break through the lack of captions. Cool.
Eclipse Foods
All right, let’s go to Eclipse Foods. So this is ice cream. And what they’re doing is they’re showing their different flavors but they’re just showing the packaging of their flavors, not showing the actual product itself or anybody enjoying the product, just packaging go around. I mean it shows you what kind of flavor it is, but it’s really not that appetizing. I haven’t eaten packaging in quite some time.
It says zero dairy, zero compromise, 1000% delicious. Oh man, I didn’t realize this before. I just took it like it said something that’s valuable. “0% compromise.” That’s subjective. Now actually to some degree, hopefully false, but that’s neither here nor there. “1000% delicious.” That is a hundred percent subjective. So the only factual thing they say is 0% dairy.
They say something else. What did they say? I don’t know. They just show clips showing packaging. All right. So this is a clever video that tells you nothing.
There’s a lot of stuff moving. It looks kind of fancy but it doesn’t tell you a dang thing at all, except for there’s 0% dairy. Mint Chip, Dark Side of the Spoon, Cookies and Cream. You have to look in because it’s small text on the video ads.
It doesn’t really tell you anything. There is Mushroom For Improvements. Yeah, it doesn’t tell me anything about their ice cream except that there is 0% dairy and that’s it.
Field Roast
All right. Let’s go into Field Roast. Now on the surface, this also looks really good of a commercial. However, it goes too fast. It’s too complex. I don’t understand what they’re pointing at. So I’d recommend looking at the video later on.
What it is, it’s a pan of food. “Plant-based appetizers guaranteed to score.” So it’s a bunch of food. Looks like you’re at a bar. And the opening line does tell you it’s plant-based foods. Then it looks like it’s a football. It looks like it’s John Madden where there’s a picture of the food going into the sauce and then pointing at the packaging.
By the way, the packaging’s hard to read. So it’s kind of hard to understand that this is plant-based or exactly what’s read on the packaging because it goes so quick. And do they really point at the… Yeah. They point at the sauce. That’s confusing. Why are they pointing at the sauce? Point at the packaging. Food equals packaging.
The sauce just completely throws me off. It adds to the complexity. Why are you pointing at the sauce? This is like John Madden’s evil twin. He’s pointing at the coach and you’re thinking that the coach is doing something but the player is the one that’s performing. Maybe a bad analogy, but way too quick, way too fast. It needs to be slowed down.
I like the idea that they’re doing. They’re showing their food and they’re showing their packaging. I’ll go Berry Nice because they are showing their product. However, it’s too complex and their product really isn’t standing out. It’s a definitive lack in what could be a top tier video.
Harmless Harvest
All right, let’s go to Harmless Harvest. Oh man, this one’s so bad. Oh this one made me cringe so bad.
It talks about spooning. It’s spooning season. And then the girl is talking about wanting to go to Paris and spooning with harvest. I’m going to put this audio on just so I can get a better memory.
Yeah. Okay. Spooning season. So they’re talking about spooning their yogurts. It’s not clear as to what the benefit of the product is at all. At all. The audience is deeply confused. And by the way, social media is not like traditional media where you build, build, build, beat drop, benefits. You have to lead with the benefit. So talking about spooning, just bad.
And then they throw in “Obviously, I’ve been to Paris,” “No, I haven’t” and then she goes on a tangent about how she’s never been to Paris. Then they start talking about her eating the parfait. And then she goes like, “I really haven’t been to Paris, please invite me.”
Anyway, that’s just a bash. It is the worst video. This is terrible. It’s also a big video production, a decent sized video production with a good amount of cash that they just absolutely burnt. It’s not a good performer. To some extent I would put my career bet on that. That is just not a good video.
Impossible Foods
All right. So enough for my deep bash, there might be another one. Impossible Foods. This is a breath of fresh air!
It’s so much different than the previous video. So you see a child, eyes closed, and then they check Impossible chicken nuggets versus other chicken nuggets. And then you see them say, “I like the Impossible chicken nuggets.” And then in between you see them dance, you see him jigging, you see a little branding going on like, yo man, I like the Impossible nuggets. They are bomb.
The kid’s having fun, doing a little shimmy. Everybody loves a little shimmy. It’s goofy. It’s funny. Wait, do they have captions? They don’t. I still like it better than California Almonds because there is a shimmy. Great video, Impossible.
You actually are able to do a side by side comparison so the audience is able to understand that there really is no difference or there may be even a better taste with Impossible in comparison to the competition.
Rather than saying that you’re great, you show that you’re great. Talk is cheap. Show it.
Lightlife
Lightlife. Let’s go in. Oh, another one. So intelligent writing as well. Lightlife it is.
“Leaving out the GMOs,” there’s people cutting food on a cutting board, “leaves more room for OMG.” And then you see those same people who are then enjoying a meal over a lake and OMG it looks beautiful. Very intelligent writing.
However, it says “the way plant-based food should be.” So this is about burgers but they’re cutting apples which means there is a disconnect there. It’s smart. Smart copywriting, but going from cutting apples to burgers, smart doesn’t mean great. Sometimes smart could be just a little bit off, but still good. You still get a kudo. You are Berry Nice for cutting fruits.
Vevan Foods
Oh no. This is a cringe. I like playing the volume just for me to get even more mad.
So there’s a magician who’s pulling up food. It’s like a meat sub and there’s obvious lines around pulling up the meats. I have no idea as a consumer what’s going on. And that says “hocus no lactose.” Okay. I don’t understand what that means. That gives no context to what has been previously said. We may have heard that.
“How did we make dairy free cheese taste like cheese?” You wait till the very end to say that. That’s not how it works. And you did a terrible job of explaining about how your cheese is different. You can’t just talk about it. Talk is cheap. And that is a cheap magic trick. Very few people are going to date that magician after seeing that ad or very few people are going to date that product after seeing that ad.
You are a Mushroom and you need some portobello in there. (That’s a bad joke.)
Zevia
All right. Zevia. Last one. Kudos we have captions here!
So this is more of a branding play. It is a sugarless soda that they’re enjoying. It’s more of a jingle to get with the trendy things, going along with people enjoying themselves while they’re having Zevia and you hear a little pop as well.
However, throughout the jingle, they do say there is no sugar involved which is a good job in terms of the branding. And because they do such a good job branding, they don’t necessarily show what’s very healthy about it by having no sugar, but they do the iterations.
So I would be teetering between the two, but it’s a very clean commercial. I am going to go Berry Nice and I’m pretty sure they probably have a berry nice flavor as well.
Final Thoughts
So that is the breakdown of all the commercials. Hopefully you have a nice cringe laugh like I had with some of these. If you have any questions, be sure to put in the comments below and chat later!
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