Does Anyone In North Carolina Remember This?

Did it work?


This meaty ad created for the now defunct Bloom grocery stores was no ordinary billboard. When it first popped up on a busy North Carolina highway in June 2010, the ad generated so much hype that it was featured on CNN, the Today Show, TV game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and in Japan’s Nikkei Marketing Journal.
But why did it make headline news? Well, the ad was unique because it sent the smell of grilled steak wafting into nearby commuters’ cars. What’s more, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) drew even more attention to the billboard’s debut by threatening to put up a radical response billboard featuring “the real smell of meat:” blood, rotting flesh, urine and excrement. The original billboard was fashioned by advertising agency Birdsong Gregory to promote Bloom’s own Sheffield & Sons brand of Angus beef. According to the agency, Bloom enjoyed improved sales in its meat department thanks to the “world’s first scented billboard.”