An oat-er the top campaign from Becel

Upfield’s Becel brand is marking the launch of its new Becel with Oat Beverage (aka oat milk) spread with an oat-rageous marketing campaign starring Kim’s Convenience star Andrew Phung.

The campaign by Edelman is highlighted by an eight-minute (!) YouTube video featuring Phung delivering 154 oat-related puns ranging from the clever (“just the word oat connoates great poatential”) to the groaningly bad (“let’s take an oat to try harder”).

For every pun that people sit through, Becel will donate a meal to people in need, up to 80,000 meals (consisting of donations of money and Upfield products). There is also a series of cutdowns that retain the concept for those “with-oat” the patience required to watch eight minutes of bad punning.

For the Quebec campaign, Becel worked with well-known people named Antoine, getting them to change their name to Avoine (which means “oat” in French). The campaign also includes recipe-focused content delivered across social, digital, email and earned media. DentsuX provided media for the campaign, with Advantage for in-store executions.

Oat milk has become an increasingly popular non-dairy option among Canadians in recent years, and Upfield describes it as the “hero ingredient” in its newest product.

“With plant-based eating on the rise, oat milk has emerged as one of the fastest growing non-dairy beverage choices in Canada,” said Mandy Au, brand lead Becel, Upfield North America. “That’s why we are thrilled to bring consumers Becel with Oat Beverage which complements the buttery taste of Becel with the rich creaminess of oat beverage, or oat milk, for a delicious, dairy-free plant-based margarine to spread, cook, and bake with.”

Chris Powell