- The Kraft Heinz Not Company is launching its first advertising campaign to support its line of plant-based NotCheese slices, which have been on store shelves for roughly a year.
- The campaign features mice, touted as cheese experts, competing in an “American Gladiator”-style competition. At the end of the course, the mice are faced with a choice between traditional cheese and the NotCheese Slices. (Spoiler alert: they choose the NotCheese option.)
- The campaign is aimed at a broad range of consumers, including vegans, those who are lactose intolerant, consumers who are looking to have more health-conscious diets and so-called “flexitarians” who opt for dairy-free options when available.
Plant-based cheese products have a high hurdle to overcome, specifically that it doesn’t taste or cook like milk-based cheese. Kraft NotCheese’s new campaign is designed to overcome consumers’ skepticism by depicting the mice as cheese experts who still choose the plant-based product.
“The idea behind the campaign goes beyond the typical taste test to convince skeptical consumers of the great taste of our product,” said Alonso Yep Zorrilla, brand manager at KRAFT NotCheese Slices. “This creative and unexpected approach adds an entertaining twist to the classic taste test, crowning the American Slice Mouse Champion, ultimately boosting consumer confidence in the authenticity and delicious taste of KRAFT NotCheese slices.”
The two-minute video depicts four competitors—Thorn, Ghost, Becky, and Carlos Javier—making their way through a maze that includes a pit of foam cubes, tunnels, and a mouse-trap gauntlet before facing the final challenge: a choice between real cheese slices and Kraft NotCheese. While only two of the four mice finish the competition, they both choose the NotCheese.
“With four times the power of smell than humans, there’s no species who knows cheese better. We then combined the classic taste test with an obstacle course inspired by YouTube mouse maze videos and crowned the American Slice Mouse Champion,” said Dean Paradise, Executive Creative Director, for GUT Miami, the agency behind the campaign, in a statement.
