We wanted to bring the real food movement to life in a way that would both elevate Hellmann’s credentials as having better, more authentic ingredients and enforce the association of the brand as being aligned with healthy, versatile dishes. However, communicating ‘real’ and ‘healthy’ is very challenging within traditional channels, given the stringent regulatory restrictions associated with food advertising. In Canada, you cannot make a direct or indirect visual or auditory reference to quality, ingredient/composition, nutrition/nutrition properties; health/safety/weight management; or production/processing. And heavy restrictions exist surrounding the clearance of terms viewed as food claims. This includes terms like ‘fresh’ and ‘real’, or even superlatives and descriptors relating to quality or ingredient composition. Given our objective to promote ‘real’ and align with fresh, healthy foods, we knew broadcast wouldn’t allow us to effectively bring our ‘Real Food Movement’ to life. On top of regulatory challenges, we also knew simply telling people we champion real food was not going to cut it. In taking a decidedly nontraditional approach, our real food truck made from real food, demonstrated our commitment to facilitating the accessibility of real food, while allowing Canadians to sample the real, fresh and healthy meals made tasty with Hellmann’s.

Hellmann’s knew Canadians cared about making real food accessible, but to do that where junk food reigns supreme, our real food message had to be surprising and bold enough to stand out in an environment as noisy as the Canadian National Exhibition. The CNE is famous for excessive junk food creations from donut hamburgers to chocolate fried chicken. If any place in Canada needed a real food option the most, this was it.

We worked with a local greenhouse and a team of engineers to design and build an operational food truck from edible plants. We sourced, seeded and germinated local herbs to make up the exterior of our living, growing food truck.

Across the CNE’s three busiest days, we served longer lines than any other food truck, resulting in over 2 million PR impressions. An estimated 80,000 people per day saw the truck live and those who participated were given recipes and coupons to drive sales and usage. Video capturing content from the truck’s creation to execution earned 156,000 views.