The National Pork Board has taken its “Pork. The Other White Meat” advertising program, launched in 1987, to the next level. After an 18-month research effort, the “Don't Be Blah” campaign was launched.

Research found that many women ages 25 to 49 have children under the age of 17, and characterize their lifestyles as modern, hectic and family-centered. These women described pork as an old-fashioned, special-occasion meal.

“We wanted to create clever, contemporary, risk-taking messages that would capture consumers' attention,” says Craig Christensen, immediate past president of the Pork Board and a pork producer from Ogden, IA.

The campaign, announced recently at Pork Industry Forum in Orlando, FL, will be carried through television and radio commercials, magazines, Internet Web sites and in-store promotions.

The new television ads are being aired in Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver and Sacramento. Magazine advertising includes O magazine, Cooking Light, People, Parade and Reader's Digest.

The new campaign is leading consumers in record numbers to the pork checkoff's redesigned TheOtherWhiteMeat.com Web site.

“It's just phenomenal,” says Pamela Johnson, director of Consumer Communications for the Pork Board. “By March 21, shortly after the launch of the new ‘Don't Be Blah’ campaign, the site had more than 150,000 visitors. Prior to the new campaign, the average was 60,000 visitors per month in 2004.”