Pork: No Longer the 'Other White Meat'

By Michael J. Crumb, Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — "The Other White Meat" has another slogan.

The National Pork Board on Friday replaced the decades-old ad campaign with a new message: "Pork: Be Inspired."

Board officials said after nearly 25 years, it was time to move on from the old message that compared pork to chicken and instead try to increase sales by focusing on the estimated 82 million Americans who already eat pork.

"The overall goal is to move sales of our product," said Ceci Snyder, the Des Moines, Iowa-based board's vice president of marketing. "We want to increase pork sales by 10% by 2014. To do that, we needed to make a stronger connection, a more emotional connection to our product."

Pork sales totaled about $117 per person in 2010. Pork consumption averages about 50 pounds per person per year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Snyder said research done by the Pork Board shows 28% of U.S. households make up nearly 70% of the nation's at-home consumption of fresh pork. The new campaign is aimed at getting existing pork consumers to think more about how they can incorporate it into their meal planning.

"We want to move that needle, go after that core group of consumers," she said. "These people love pork, know how to prepare it and are eager to share recipes."

The new marketing effort marks the end to a ubiquitous advertising slogan launched in 1987 to convince consumers that pork was healthy and had fewer calories than most people thought. The campaign stemmed a decline in pork consumption, Snyder said.