The National Pork Board has awarded its estimated $10 million account to The Richards Group in Dallas, with ads slated to break in March 2005.
The board may repurpose its long-running tagline “Pork. The other white meat.”
“We’re starting from the ground up. Nothing is sacred,” said a Pork Board spokesperson.
Promotion plans have not been set for 2005, but the board likely will do a number of retail promotions. Campbell Mithun, Chicago, the incumbent in the ad review, keeps retail marketing and foodservice for the board.
The Des Moines, IA-based Board’s marketing budget is funded through a 40-cent checkoff fee that producers pay for every $100 worth of hogs they sell. Legal battles over the checkoff program continue. The mandatory fee has been ruled unconstitutional as “forced speech.”
But the program—and marketing—will continue as producers await the outcome of a similar case that will go before the U.S. Supreme Court between October 2004 and June 2005. That case is an appeal of a ruling against beef checkoffs handled by the National Cattlemen’s Association. The court’s ruling will apply to the pork program, too.
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