Pig farming has always been associated with dirt. But today’s pig farmers are obsessed with keeping their barns clean and their animals healthy. They are committed to taking care of their animals, the environment, and the communities where they live and work.

The National Pork Board asked us to concept and implement a campaign that would accomplish these objectives:

1) Dispel myths that pig farming is dirty.

2) Improve the reputation of pork farming among a niche audience of pork producers.

3) Build trust in the pork production process among consumers.

The pork industry was looking to clean up its reputation. There was only one problem: Pig is a dirty word. So how do you clean up an entire industry’s reputation when the many negative phrases associated with pigs have been ingrained since birth?

“The Rural Dictionary” sought to redefine the negative connotations around pig idioms — from “pigsty” to “pig out” — updating them with all new meanings that dispelled myths about modern pig farming and positively reflected the industry. We engaged a credible and relevant spokesperson and former pig farmer, Modern Family’s Eric Stonestreet, to amplify our message for an industry that is used to being “dragged through the mud.”

Our insight was to use culture to change years of cultural stigma. Whether it be Samuel L. Jackson’s famous line in Pulp Fiction (“Pigs are filthy animals. I don’t eat filthy animals.”) or Peanut’s character Pigpen, we knew that “pigs = dirty.” Our key messages dispelled myths about pig farming by turning negative phrases into positive new ones centered on modern pig farming’s approach to nutrition, cleanliness and better land stewardship.

Pretty plates of pork and smiling families at the dinner table had no place in this conversation. With a need to reach consumers and the industry alike, we needed to work with a personality who understood the industry but was also a household name for consumers. And Modern Family star and former pig farmer Eric Stonestreet became the perfect cultural authority to deliver the message to pork producers and consumers equally.

The Rural Dictionary came to life on Pork.org’s owned channels from September-November 2021 in a series of social-first videos tackling five common myths about pig farming starring Stonestreet. The campaign was amplified via an integrated marketing plan to pork enthusiasts, pork skeptics and the trade.

We held a live social webinar featuring Stonestreet for the pork producer audience. And we followed the event with a broadcast radio extension to producers as well as industry engagement with pig farmers and state pork associations. To capture general consumers, we conducted a satellite media tour with interviews in local markets across the U.S. and supplemented with exclusive one-on-one interviews with top-tier national consumer outlets and utilized earned national and trade media as well as paid social. Finally, to reach even more producers, we facilitated an interview with Farm Journal’s PORK and held a media day with Stonestreet that coincided with October’s “Pork Month.”

Despite being largely reliant on outlets with relatively small circulations by other industry standards (Farm Journal’s PORK’s print circulation is just 15,027) and pork.org’s owned channels, we got huge numbers of people to feel better about the pork industry. A reputational win!

The campaign landed 16M social impressions, 245K social engagements, 155K clicks from social; >600M traditional media and radio impressions, 239 placements; and nearly 16K unique web views. Even breaking outside of trade publications with an exclusive in People.

Sentiment among the industry to spokesperson selection overall was extremely positive and our consumer survey of 1,000 meat eaters based on campaigns in market before and after the campaign indicated:

• ˜54% felt more favorably about the pork industry after viewing.

• ˜36% indicated they’d be more likely to buy pork after viewing.

• With an average 36.5% unaided message pull-through on two of five videos.