ENCORE: Beyond Meat vs Impossible Burger | Break from the Herd

·35 min·3 clips

Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown bets on Kim Kardashian's endorsement to save his cash-bleeding plant-based meat company.

This episode of Business Wars details the challenges faced by Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods in 2022-2024. It opens with Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown in May 2022, previewing a new ad featuring Kim Kardashian as chief taste consultant, hoping to boost sales while the company is losing money. The ad debuts but draws criticism when followers accuse Kardashian of fake chewing, leading to negative press. Ethan decides to trust Kardashian's publicity strategy, and later outtakes show her eating the products, generating positive coverage. Beyond Meat then faces a major blow when McDonald's president Joe Erlinger ends the U.S. test of the McPlant, citing poor customer response, though it remains in Europe. In September 2022, Beyond Meat executive Doug Ramsey commits a violent assault after a football game, punching through a car windshield, which leads to his suspension and eventual firing. Beyond Meat also lays off 19% of its workforce to save costs. Meanwhile, at Impossible Foods, founder Pat Brown steps down as CEO in March 2022, handing over to Peter McGinnis, and later takes a leave of absence to focus on carbon offset research through his nonprofit, the Impossible Foundation. In early 2024, Beyond Meat develops the Beyond Burger 4 with nutritionist Joy Bauer, aiming to position it as a healthier option, and launches a new ad campaign emphasizing farm origins and health benefits. Impossible Foods rebrands under McGinnis, abandoning 'woke' messaging and adopting a meat-loving image with red packaging and ads featuring a mustachioed man promoting 'meat from plants.' The episode concludes with both companies still unprofitable, with Beyond Meat restructuring debt and Impossible Foods open to acquisition, while industry observers question the future of plant-based meats.

As heard by us

A celebrity endorsement opens the door to the bigger bets behind plant-based meat.

Business Wars treats the plant-based meat fight as a business story about a hot category running into the cost of its own ambition. It starts in Ethan Brown's El Segundo office, where a Kim Kardashian endorsement is supposed to lift Beyond Meat while debt rises and cash runs…

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Why you'd press play

You get a plant-based business showdown that runs from Kim Kardashian's Beyond Meat ad to Impossible Foods' ranch-and-carbon-offset idea.

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