Egg Farmers of Newfoundland and Labrador has launched a new provincial campaign using the “Eggs Anytime” platform first introduced by the Egg Farmers of Canada in 2019.
Developed by St. John’s agency Robot Interactive + Marketing, which has been working with Egg Farmers of Newfoundland and Labrador for the past 18 months, “G’on, B’y. Eggs for Supper Isn’t Weird” is a highly localized version of the national campaign, in which people who enjoy eating eggs outside of breakfast are ridiculed as weird, only to point out something much weirder about their accuser.
Robot Interactive + Marketing president Aaron Dawe said he is a “huge fan” of the “Eggs Anytime” campaign developed by Cossette for the national marketing board, and particularly one of its launch spots in which a brother calls his sister weird for eating eggs at lunch, and she responds by pointing out that his girlfriend looks like their mother. “I just thought that was brilliant,” said Dawe.
Robot Interactive + Marketing suggested a Newfoundland-specific version of the campaign. “We said ‘Why not just lean into these fantastic ads and do it a Newfoundland way'” said Dawe.
Their version would speak specifically to Newfoundland audiences both through larger themes and little tweaks such as swapping out the word “dinner” for the more commonly used Newfoundland term “supper,” as well as a character using the commonplace word “nan” to address his grandmother, played by popular Newfoundland actor and entertainer Sheila Williams.
TV and radio ads in the campaign reference specifically Newfoundland traits. In one spot, nan serves her grandson eggs for supper. When he says it’s weird, nan replies that what’s weird is that young Newfoundlanders all wear the same boots, a reference to the province’s widespread love of Blundstone boots (Tim Stacey, president of Blundstone footwear’s Canadian distributor Tin Shack, once told the CBC that sales of the footwear in St. John’s were “off the charts”).
In another, when the young man questions eggs for lunch, nan says that combining leftover jiggs dinner ingredients—which include salt beef, turnip, cabbage and potatoes—in a smoothie is also weird (not to mention gross). Another radio spot, meanwhile, references the Newfoundland tradition of mummering.
Newfoundlanders are known for their sense of humour, having produced several renowned comedians including Rick Mercer and Mary Walsh, and are known for their ability to laugh at themselves, said Dawe. “We sort of love making fun of ourselves, as long as nobody else does it,” he said.
Food marketing boards tend to be a “little bit more vanilla” in their marketing, said Dawe, who said this campaign represents something of a departure for the Egg Farmers of Newfoundland and Labrador. “I think there was some nervousness about going this way, and I do feel they felt like they were under a lot of stress. But when we showed them the ad, they loved it,” he said.
