It was August in New York and a bunch of food bloggers were invited to dine at an underground, swanky, hip restaurant in the West Village. They were told they would be enjoying food prepared by George Duran, the chef who hosts "Ultimate Cake Off" on TLC.
The event was organized by PR and Marketing agency, Ketchum whose client was ConAgra Foods.
The bloggers were invited to:
“an intimate Italian restaurant” where attendees would enjoy a “delicious four-course meal,” Mr. Duran’s “one-of-a-kind sangria,” and learn about food trends from a food industry analyst, Phil Lempert. The invitation continued that upon confirming — for one of five evenings beginning Aug. 23 — bloggers would receive an extra pair of tickets as a prize for readers and that the dinner would include “an unexpected surprise.” (NY Times)
Sounds like a great event, right?
Wrong!
After the bloggers were finished eating, it was revealed to them that they had actually eaten a Three Meat and Four Cheese Lasagna by Marie Callender’s, a frozen line from ConAgra Foods.
Needless to say, the bloggers were offended. ConAgra invited influential bloggers who write about and review good quality, real food. They were quite cheesed when they found out what they had unwillingly eaten and they even served the lasagna to a blogger who was open about the fact that he's allergic to preservatives and one who writes about being calorie conscious.
Here's what ConAgra had to say (from NY times):
“The twist at the end was not dissimilar with what brands like Pizza Hut and Domino’s have done in the recent past with success,” she said, referring to hidden-camera advertising campaigns. ConAgra expected to use the footage for promotional videos on YouTube and its Web site, and for bloggers to generate buzz when they wrote about being pleasantly surprised.
I understand what ConAgra was trying to do but even I know they did it with the wrong audience. Prominent food bloggers are not interested in frozen microwaveable meals. They were trying to copy a campaign used on regular, busy families with the same effect. No such luck, ConAgra.
Some of the responses:
Here's a sampling from the FoodMayhem blog:
To Mr. George Duran:
On behalf of the the culinary world, we hereby revoke your dodin bouffant; apron; and most of all, your right to call yourself a ‘chef’. You sir are an embarrassment to those in the culinary industry working hard to maintain and enhance a culture of food as one of the best parts of living.
We discussed with the group the sad state of chemical-filled foods and discussed various chains. And yet, you still fed me the exact thing I said I did not want to eat.
And this from the ChubbyChineseGirl blog:
I'm NOT their target consumer and they were totally off by thinking I would buy or promote their highly processed frozen foods after tricking me to taste it.
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