Will you be ‘inspired’ by pork?

Pork, the other white meat.

The National Pork Board has been using that simple yet brilliantly clear slogan to brand their products since 1987, but when something works too well in this country we tend to want to change it.  By their own admission, this was a huge marketing success.

Since its inception, The Other White Meat campaign has gained tremendous recognition with consumers. In 2000, a study conducted by Northwestern University found The Other White Meat brand to be the fifth most memorable promotional tagline in the history of contemporary advertising.

Top five most memorable tagline and you want to dump it?  Yes.

Last June the NPB announced they would be looking for a new slogan. After almost ten months of creative brainstorming, endless powerpoint presentations to pork execs, and the required focus group testing, the new slogan was agreed upon and unveiled at the NPB National annual meeting just two days ago.

Are you sitting down?  Here it is.

Be inspired?  Seriously?

I have to nominate this one for the Bonehead Hall of Fame.  The geniuses who first decided that lagging sales of pork were directly tied to their brand identity and not to something like, oh, I don't know. . . the worst economy in a century, should be made to slop the hogs for a year.

It is doubtful that the 82 million pork consumers in America will rise up in anger over this insanity and demand a return to the old slogan. We barely crack 50% participation in off-year elections.  And the Pork bosses have already scrubbed much of the old standard from their websites. If you type www.theotherwhitemeat.com into your browser, you are immediately referred to www.porkbeinspired.com, the new site where this explanation awaits:

Building on the success of The Other White Meat, which will remain as a heritage brand, Pork Be inspired communicates to the legion of pork fans that pork is delicious, versatile and can stand on its own – there is no need to rely on comparisons with other meats. Pork Be inspired is really about celebrating everything that is wonderful and unique about pork.

Sorry Pork Board, the only thing you've inspired me to do is shake my head and ask, 'What were they thinking?\