Recipe for Disaster: Impossible Foods CEO Says Plant-Based Meat Marketing's 'Wokeness' Hurt the Category

If the CEO of Impossible Foods, Peter McGuinness, wrote a primer on marketing, a few of his first tenets might be: Never alienate the American heartland, and don’t wag your finger at folks who love their burgers and chops. McGuinness, speaking at the Adweek X conference in Los Angeles Monday, admitted that plant-based meat brands have an image problem, among other challenges like taste, distribution and price. And he and his chief marketing and creative officer, Leslie Sims, have a herculean task in front of them trying to convince the meat-eating public to sample alternative protein. That may be because founders in the space are historically “climate warriors” who have leaned into sustainability as a key selling point, which “narrowed the aperture and made the category smaller than it needs to be,” McGuinness said during the afternoon session with Adweek CEO Will Lee that some attendees described as a TED-style talk. “There was a wokeness to it, there was a bicoastalness to it, there was an academia to it ... and there was an elitism to it,” McGuiness said, “and that pissed most of America off.” Burgers and Broadway: Impossible Foods Debuts Musical Ad During Tony Awards Impossible, as well as many competitors, has never targeted vegans, with those consumers making up only about 1.4% of the U.S. population. The brands, instead, have aimed their products squarely at about one-half of the country that identifies as flexitarian—meaning they still eat meat but sometimes swap it out in favor of plant-based protein. “So the way to get meat eaters to actually buy your product is not to piss them off, vilify them, insult them and judge them,” he said. “We need to go from insulting to inviting, which is a hell of a journey.” Early communication that positioned plant-based companies as “food tech” did the category no favors either, according to McGuinness, who said, “We don’t eat technology.” Little awareness, lots of misinformation Startups in the nascent category face a marketing conundrum, with McGuinness pointing to “very little awareness and understanding” of the pork, chicken and beef substitutes, along with a raft of disinformation often spread by "Big Beef" and its deep-pocketed friends. Even a former speaker of the House of Representatives—who McGuinness didn’t identify by name but called “not the sharpest tool in the shed"—spouted animal agriculture’s talking points during a conversation with him. Peter McGuinness, Impossible Foods CEO, brought some real talk to the first Adweek X conference in L.A. “There’s a massive amount of myths about plant-based products and the process” that’s used to make them, said McGuinness, a 20-year ad agency alum before switching to the brand side as president and CEO of Chobani. He joined Impossible in spring 2022. After an eye-popping sales surge during 2020’s pandemic, the category has fallen out of favor with many U.S. buyers. Sales have continued to decline since 2021, per data from Circana that showed a nearly 21% decrease in volume sales for the 52-week period ending July 2, 2023. Investments in alt protein makers—including plant-based meat, seafood, eggs and dairy—fell 41% in 2022, per Circana. A report from CoBank, which cited the research, blamed high prices for the sales dip, as cost-conscious shoppers turned away from pricey alt meat. At the same time, Big Beef has launched and resurfaced attack ads and social posts that paint plant-based protein as made in China, ultra-processed and unhealthy. Against that backdrop, McGuinness and Sims intend to “relaunch Impossible in a very inclusive way,” emphasizing what it stands for rather than what it’s battling against, including its protein-rich soy-based ingredients, zero cholesterol and 50% less saturated fat than animal meat. Alt meat's 'Got Milk?' McGuinness repeated his interest in a “Got Milk”-style public service announcement campaign that would promote the overall industry, backed by a coalition of plant-based companies. But that effort may be no nearer to fruition than it was this past summer, when a number of brands were discussing the possibility. “We have like 200 plant-based businesses, half are going out of business, we’re highly uncoordinated, no one has any money, everybody’s out for themselves,” he said. “It’s a total mess.” McGuinness still believes in “a collective opportunity to extol the benefits of the category,” but knows that fragmentation is working against a potential consortium. In the meantime, animal agriculture continues to be the $1.5 trillion behemoth that’s “highly coordinated, highly funded, highly lobbied,” as opposed to the plant-based segment’s $8 billion in sales and “0.0001% share,” he said. “We don’t want to get into a kind of pissing match with meat—we will lose that.” Meeting of the Plant-Based Minds: Food Leaders Consider a Coalition to Boost Industry Instead, his brand will step up its educational efforts, focusing on the soybean supply chain in Decatur, Ill., and manufacturing in Chicago, Los Angeles and Oakland, Calif. Impossible also aims to move the needle on its household awareness, currently sitting at 15%, and availability in U.S. retailers and restaurants. “My job is not to steal share from Beyond Meat—then I’ve just moved the deck chairs around, and the category stays at the same size,” McGuinness said. “We have to make the category bigger.”