Activated huxta seeds, etc. a postscript

"A close relative of Chia, these little beauties are farmed on remote desert plains. Activated Huxta Seeds are most commonly known for their anti-inflammatory and anti-existent qualities. That’s right, anti-existent. Sorry folks, Activated Huxta Seeds are completely made up."

Be Natural

When I mentioned the posters I saw the other day to my husband he remarked that it was the kind of thing that might go viral - that would pop up here and there. And indeed they sort of have. If you remember when I fed in huxta seeds to Google I found nothing. Today you will find the page above, so I must have been ahead of the Be Natural Company, whose initiative it is. But anyway my husband saw something on one of the news feeds that he gets and this took him to the above - which is a page on the Be Natural website. Mind you if you go to the Be Natural website itself you won't be able to find this page - nor will you be able to find out anything about the company. And contrary to my husband's belief that you can find anything on the internet I could find nothing about the company - nor an annual report. But maybe you only have to issue an annual report to the public if you're a listed stock exchange company. No that's not right - our film society has to issue an annual report, so I'm guessing that all companies whether big or small have to too. But maybe it's just for the tax department. But then wouldn't they have to have them available to anyone who wanted to know.

But I sort of digress and all too hard.

So it's obviously sort of an ad campaign, and it is quite humorous but what's the point of advertising if (a) the posters have no reference to the company and (b) the company website has no reference to the ads. Maybe I'm just supposed to recognise the logo - which I have to confess was sort of on the posters. But then if I recognise it I'm already a customer probably - surely the point of advertising is to get new customers.

So who are Be Natural? Here is their home page.

As you can see from this they make cereals and health bars. And now that I see the packaging I do remember seeing it on the supermarket shelves. So, in fact, they are one of the companies pushing all the things like chia seeds and quinoa. Well they are not too extreme but they do have chia seeds and quinoa and coconut - the other hot product of the day.

Their vision statement - which is quite lengthy is a mantra on the importance of plants. Here is part of it.

"With the dream of healthier living for all, we want to develop a food movement that celebrates the power of plants. Our approach to progressive nutrition from real ingredients inspires the foods we make and our mission to nourish people and our planet. Embark on our journey with us; join our tribe!"

A concept they introduced me to in the course of reading the vision statement is that of "the Blue Zones of this beautiful planet." They talk more in depth about this elsewhere on the website. Apparently there are five blue zones and this is where the longest lived people on the planet come from. I won't go into it here - you can read their summation here - but I will come back to it in a future post.

And:

"Let's come together for food – for what plant power can do for our bodies today and every day. Let us champion healthier lifestyles through nutritious uplifting plant-based foods and challenge conventional thinking. Let us never stop exploring, innovating, and improving. So grab our hand, and let us inspire you."

Well I guess those posters are innovative and maybe even challenging. Well, here I am asking questions about a variety of things. But it's really not going to make me go out and buy Be Natural products, even if I knew that that was what was being promoted. And maybe it's not. But then why bother? These things cost money. And if you've got it on your website too why not have a link to it? Actually their website navigation menu is awful - the text is not at all clear. But that really is a trivial aside. And since their vision statement is so idealistic and holistic - to use a trendy word - there is some irony in producing a poster that sort of makes fun of the whole health food thing. I guess they are saying that their food is 'real' not imaginary but I think this a bit of a leap and not logical, even though they sort of say it on those website pages.

Back to the question of who they are. There is no About section on their website as far as I can see. I did wonder whether they were a brand that actually belonged to one of the really big food companies. And next time I am in the supermarket I shall have a look at their products and see if there is anything on there to give me a clue. There is a contact - an address and telephone number in Ferntree Gully - which is not all that far from here - and also in New Zealand. But if you feed in Be Natural or benatural and Ferntree Gully, nothing comes up. Since they are on the big supermarket shelves I do wonder whether they are part of a bigger whole. Goodman Fielder perhaps - but no. So I am a bit stumped and a bit sad. If they are an enterprising little bunch of Australians who have broken into the supermarkets I would be very interested in learning more about their story and how they got to be where they are.

I think this is a very new campaign, so I am very interested in seeing how it pans out. You can now find these imaginary pictures on Google Images and they are only a day old.

POSTSCRIPT: And those 'ads' have already disappeared. I think they were there for a mere couple of days. Such is the hazard of wall posters in the city.

AND: I looked at the packets in the supermarket and found that the muesli bars were made in Thailand. The cereal however, was made in Australia from local and imported ingredients. The address on the packets was not Ferntree Gully but somewhere in NSW. No reference to any large company - so who knows? They were well represented on the shelves though.