"National Pork Board" news and stories

Pigs of America, get ready for a makeover: Your days of being called "The Other White Meat" are about to end. After 23 years, the National Pork Board is planning to retire the iconic slogan in an attempt to boost sales.

When the campaign first launched in the late '80s, it was somewhat revelatory. Commercials and magazine ads depicted meals with pork surrounded by fresh, low-cal side dishes. By painting pork as an alternative to poultry, they managed to separate it in the minds of consumers from those meats that were perceived to be higher in fat (like beef).

"It did its job, for sure, back in 1987. It was phenomenal," Ceci Snyder, the Des Moines-based board's vice president of marketing, told the Associated Press. "It really changed minds."

Until I hit high school, my family ate dinner together nearly every night. I'm talking TV off, table set, glasses of milk, hands held for a moment of silence, dinner. I feel really lucky to have grown up with such a foundation of family meals and someday when I have kids, I hope to give them the same experience.

Both studies and common sense tell us that eating communally it good for us, so someone out there went and declared this week (September 16-22) National Eat Dinner Together Week. Sponsored by the National Pork Board (who oddly situated it in the middle of the Jewish High Holidays*) it is a good reminder to clear off the table, make a pot of soup, a roasted chicken or a stop at your local prepared foods market and sit down with your friends and family.

*The Jewish side of my family is highly secular. They don't think twice about eating pork products most of the year, but even they try to avoid them during the High Holidays. Seems like an odd choice on the part of the Pork Board.

via the Epi-log
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