NotCo uses AI to show animals living a full life in first ads under Fernando Machado
AKQA Bloom campaign imagines what livestock would look like if they weren’t slaughtered young for food.
FrankLin
Ad Age Creativity
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AKQA Bloom crafted the ads, styled as photographic portraits of pigs, chickens, cows and sheep who are clearly elderly. The campaign—made with a mix of AI tools, including ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney—is designed to play on feelings of guilt as consumers consider how drastically the animals’ lives are cut short.
Also read: See a creative director's Midjourney portraits
As copy on the ads suggests, cows can live more than 40 years in nature, pigs more than 20 and chickens more than 10—but most raised for food live only months.
The use of AI is also conceptually apt, as NotCo uses AI (in a different form) to develop its plant-based foods and lessen the reliance on animal-based food production. Its patented AI, nicknamed Giuseppe, analyzes the structure of animal-derived food at a molecular level to replicate its flavor, texture and smell using only plants. The company’s goal, the ads say, is to “reinvent the food industry for good.”
“Right now animals like cows, pigs and chickens that are grown for food only live a fraction of their natural lifespans,” said Machado, who joined NotCo this month after two years at Activision, following seven years at Restaurant Brands International. “We hope this sparks a larger conversation about how we can all do our part to create a better future together—for ourselves, our planet and the animals.”
“We asked ourselves a simple question: ‘When was the last time we saw an old cow—have we actually ever seen one?’” said Matias Muchnick, NotCo’s co-founder and CEO. “The answer was no, so we turned to a different type of AI to give us an accurate look. We were astonished with what we saw and think people will be, too.”
The images will run on social media, as print ads and on billboards in select U.S. cities through the end of April, which is Earth Month. They will also run in other countries where NotCo operates, including Chile, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and Argentina.
This is AKQA Bloom’s first work for NotCo.
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“This campaign reminds us that AI can help humans have a better relationship with animals and nature,” said Jean Zamprogno and Fernando Pellizzaro, the agency’s co-founders. “We believe that seeing an old farm animal shouldn’t be a surprise, and AI can be the accelerator for a plant-based revolution in the food industry.”
The campaign will include an AI-generated time-lapse video for social, showing the animals age. That piece will launch in the coming weeks.
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NotCo said in February that it’s now a Certified B Corporation, reflecting its commitment to social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. The B Corp Certification applies to all NotCo products in the U.S., including NotMilk, NotBurger and NotChicken, as well as products like NotMeat, NotIceCream and NotMayo in countries such as Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Paraguay.
