Foster Farms, the definition of local and geography 101

By Rick Stanton, Creative Director/President

As many of you know, I wrote and produced the creative for the Washington Fryer Commission for 19 years. That’s an eternity in advertising. During that time, we convinced local chicken farmers that you can turn a commodity into a brand, and we convinced consumers that if you bought out-of-state chicken you were feeding your family garbage. We took a commodity with 30% of the SKUs in most stores in the state and changed it to nearly 80% at the apex of our efforts.
And now that the commission is no more, thanks in part to large out-of-state processors like Foster Farms doing all they could to kill it, they are slowly turning a brand back into a commodity.
I have to laugh every time I see the full-page ad in the Sunday Times with the headline, “Chicken should cross the road, not the country.”
There is a large map of Washington and Oregon with dots apparently where chicken farmers live.
Really? In case you haven’t noticed, today Foster Farms would have you believe that a chicken farmer in the middle of Oregon is local.
Today, while every other food marketer on the planet with a conscience is underscoring the fact that local means nearby and in the vicinity, these people are trying to convince us local means anything between the British Columbia and Northern California borders.
The fortunate thing for all of us is that their chicken is still better and fresher, though not exactly adhering to the spirit of “There’s no taste like home,” unless you have a house in Edmonds and Bend.
The unfortunate thing is, as Foster Farms continues to defy logic and geography, you will soon be led to believe that California is close enough for hand grenades, and by God that’s local. FYI, Foster Farms’ corporate offices are in the San Joaquin Valley. Alabama, Colorado and Arkansas are soon to be in the neighborhood too, if you follow Foster Farms’ logic and your geography’s a little fuzzy. So this little missive is an exercise in how to turn a commodity into a brand and back into a commodity while compromising Washington agriculture and the consumer.
It just takes a little time, little concern for real local farmers, and an office in California.