Contact:           Polly Ruhland               303/850-3394                pruhland@beef.org

                        Diane Henderson          303/850-3465                dhenderson@beef.org 

BEEF CHECKOFF ENJOYMENT CAMPAIGN

RETURNS TO NATIONAL MAGAZINES, RADIO 

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (Feb. 24, 2005) –  Eye-catching, entertaining and mouthwatering beef advertising is again reaching out to consumers as part of the Beef Checkoff Program’s “Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner®” advertising campaign. Part of the program’s “enjoyment” element, the ads are appearing nationally on radio and in consumer magazines through Labor Day to strengthen consumers’ emotional connection and reinforce positive attitudes toward beef.

Five flights of national print began in January, with four flights of network radio being placed during key beef-eating holidays. The campaign will reach 94 percent of adults 25-54 years old 14 times.   

Thirty-one different popular consumer magazines will carry beef ads 100 times.  National radio, with cowboy actor Sam Elliott’s distinctive voice and Aaron Copeland’s rousing “Rodeo” music, will appear in a variety of sports, music and other popular programming. 

The full-page magazine ads have appetizing photographs of cooked beef dishes and subtle but unmistakable messages in the headlines, including “Why Man Invented Fire,” and “There’s No Such Thing as a Chicken Knife.” Among magazines carrying the ads are Better Homes and Gardens, Gourmet, Sports Illustrated, Southern Living, People and Reader’s Digest.   

The ads seek to match or improve on the impressive results of enjoyment advertising conducted during the 2005 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, 2005. In consumer research last year, 79 percent of those who had seen the ad said that “beef is a food I would have a hard time giving up.”   

“The enjoyment ads really reinforced the positive attitudes consumers have for beef,” according to John Dudley, chairman of the Joint Advertising Committee and a beef producer from Comanche, Texas. “Those who saw the ads had more positive feelings about our product across the board.  The campaign really fueled the passion for beef.” 

In addition to the paid advertising, the campaign will include more than $2.8 million of free media added-value programs, such as food editorials, sweepstakes, Web site links and bonus pages. These programs will stretch checkoff investments even further. 

The radio advertising will also support the checkoff-funded retail Summer Grilling campaign in selected markets to drive sales Memorial Day through Labor Day, when beef supplies are high. 

“Our committee works very hard to assure that what we’re doing helps strengthen and support the entire checkoff effort,” says Dudley. “By working in a collective way with other programs, we make Beef Checkoff Program dollars work even stronger and better achieve the overall goal of increasing demand for beef.” 

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The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval.

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