The encyclopedia · Marketing & Brand · Marketing decision · 2023
Kraft Heinz answered the egg crisis by telling people to date farmers
When egg prices jumped 70%, Just Crack an Egg gave buyers a free FarmersOnly subscription so they could meet a farmer who has eggs.
Kraft Heinz (Just Crack an Egg)
The solution
Just Crack an Egg — the least-known Kraft Heinz brand — sells breakfast bowls that need a fresh egg, and in 2023 American egg prices had jumped about 70% after avian flu and inflation. A product whose recipe depends on the crisis was suddenly very relevant.
Rethink New York's idea was not to advertise the ingredients but to send consumers to the source: buy a bowl, upload the receipt, and get a free premium subscription to FarmersOnly, a dating site with over a million farmers. The punchline — how you get the eggs is up to you — ran hardest in cities where egg prices had risen most.
The promotion turned a supply shock into the brand's message, generating national news coverage including the AP wire; the One Show gave it Best of Public Relations in 2024.
Why it worked
- The crisis made the joke timely and newsworthy
- A partner site supplied the reach and the laugh
- Receipt-gated redemption tied the stunt to purchase
- Placing ads where prices rose made it feel local
What can be applied
When the news breaks against your product, join it instead of dodging it: partner with an unexpected ally, tie the joke to a purchase, and let the story carry the media.
Aftermath
Beyond Best of PR at One Show 2024, the campaign won a Gold Pencil for Brand Partnerships and more across humor and current-event response categories, putting an unknown brand into the national conversation.
Sources
- Just Date a Farmer
- Kraft Heinz's 'Just Crack an Egg' comes up with solution to egg crisis: Just date a farmer
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