Consumer Media Food Pages Prominently Feature Beef

Public relations efforts to promote undervalued cuts of beef have reached nearly 1,300 newspapers with a total circulation of 107.5 million since Oct. 1, 2001.  The checkoff-funded efforts included recipes, photos and information on the beef chuck and round, and were placed in nearly 1,300 publications.  Overall, the checkoff helped place stories and photos at least 3,623 times since Oct. 1 in papers with circulation of 226.9 million.

The efforts to place the information were conducted for the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and state beef councils by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Food Communications program.  The numbers from the report don’t include publicity reaching magazines and broadcast media.

The newspaper publicity was for recipes developed with checkoff funding such as the BarbecueStyle Meatballs, which was printed in newspapers with total circulation of 3.3 million, and Easy Beef and Broccoli, which was run in 101 newspapers - 96 percent of which used a photo of the dish.  A recipe for Italian Meatball Soup was picked up by the Associated Press and ran in 208 newspapers with total circulation of 7.5 million.  Other checkoff-funded placements included Stir-Fried Steak and Vegetable Sandwiches (146 newspapers, 1.9 million circulation) and Asian Beef & Broccoli Lettuce Wraps (113 newspapers, 1.9 million circulation).

Dozens of special requests from food editors and writers for information and photos were also filled, thanks to the checkoff.  For instance, a syndicated writer featured numerous beef recipes, including French Dip Sandwiches (24 newspapers, 3.8 million circulation), Hurry Up Tacos (22 newspapers, 3,7 million circulation) and Spicy Pot Roast (20 newspapers, 3.9 million circulation).

 “Our behind-the-scenes efforts are responsible for millions of out-front publicity impressions,” said Bob Rolston, a Colorado beef producer and chairman of the Joint Industry Public Relations Subcommittee.  “Consumers throughout the country are seeing and using these easy, delicious beef recipes as a result of checkoff-funded programs that get them into the right hands.”

Beef industry food communication efforts are funded by beef producers through their $1-per-head checkoff program and are managed for the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and state beef councils by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.  The national beef checkoff is administered by the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board.  This 110-member board is appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to oversee the collection of the $1-per-head checkoff, certify state beef councils, implement the provisions of the federal order establishing the checkoff and evaluate the effectiveness of checkoff programs.