Minnesota Pork Board – Cook’n Bacon / Team Pork (USA)
Celebrated Olympic divers Cook and Bacon with a playful campaign that built community pride and food bank support.
Submitted by Parity connecting brands with professional women athletes and their fans
Winner’s Citation
PLATINUM in the 2025 Marketing Makes a World of Difference Awards
The Minnesota Pork Board’s “Cook’n Bacon” campaign proved that sometimes the perfect fit is both clever and authentic. By partnering with Olympic divers Kassidy Cook and Sarah Bacon, the campaign celebrated nutrition, strength, and community while fueling pride at the Paris Games. With food bank donations, fan engagement, and strong ROI, Team Pork showed how a simple idea can dive deep—turning a name into a national moment.
How it Makes a World of Difference
Sometimes the most memorable ideas come from the simplest insights. With Olympic divers Kassidy Cook and Sarah Bacon qualifying for Paris, the Minnesota Pork Board seized the perfect opportunity: Cook + Bacon = Cook’n Bacon. What could have been a gimmick became a playful but authentic way to spotlight pork as a nutritious, protein-rich food, while fueling community pride. By pairing Olympic excellence with local values of nutrition, strength, and community, the campaign turned a clever coincidence into a celebration of sport, food, and belonging.
This case is lighter than many others—it doesn’t tackle systemic crises like climate change, equity, or safety. However, it offers great lessons to marketers while making a difference.
- It celebrates community, authenticity, and nutrition.
- It ties marketing to local pride and Olympic achievement, building bridges between farmers and consumers.
- It includes a philanthropic dimension through food bank donations.
It may not sit in the same “world-changing” category as Dove, Vattenfall, or Sandy Hook Promise, but it still demonstrates how marketing can make a difference by connecting culture, community, and cause in a playful but meaningful way.
Jury Lens Evaluation
- Promise Becomes Action: Pork farmers promised to fuel strength and health, and acted by aligning with elite athletes in a way that felt authentic and fun.
- Trust: The campaign built goodwill through community events, appearances at the Minnesota State Fair, and donations to food banks, extending beyond clever wordplay.
- Growth: Strong ROI through heightened visibility, fan engagement, and partnerships with Hormel and First Watch restaurants.
- Difference: While lighter in social mission than other cases, this campaign stood out for turning a cultural pun into a national moment tied to Olympic achievement.
Results that Make a Difference
- 33,000+ live views at the Minnesota State Fair.
- Silver medal win in Paris Olympics amplified campaign visibility and authenticity.
- Strong social engagement through hashtags (#CooknBacon, #TeamPork, #DivingIntoTeamPork).
- Partnerships with Hormel and First Watch expanded the campaign into retail and foodservice.
- Community benefit through food bank donations tied to activations.
- ROI validated by Parity as an example of “message–market fit.”
