Australian butter sales boosted by better marketing, advertising experts say

Remember Rita the Eta Eater? Advertising experts say the margarine mascot was one of Australia's most effective food spruikers. Here's why.

Australian actor Bunny Gibson as Rita the ETA Eater in the mid-1980s.

Bunny Gibson and John Meillon weren’t just acting royalty. The thespian couple were an advertising force to be reckoned with back in the 1980s.

While Meillon told Australians that a “hard earned thirst needs a big cold beer” in his famous VB ad voiceovers, his wife Gibson encouraged a generation of shoppers to ditch butter.

As her alter ego, Rita the Eta Eater, Gibson would descend from a hot-air balloon or brandish a cockatoo to promote in-vogue margarine.

“I played her for 18 years and people still call me Rita. She became the Wonder Woman of the western suburbs,” Gibson said in 2015.

No only did Australians love Rita, they snapped up Eta by the trolley load.

In the same period, rival Meadow Lea hired Mojo Advertising to weave their magic. The result from the C’mon Aussie, C’mon jingle writers was the equally memorable You Oughta Be Congratulated earworm.

“The margarine manufacturers were very good at advertising in the 1970s and 80s,” former Victorian Farmers Federation president Alex Arbuthnot said.

“They managed to convince enough people for a time that margarine was healthier for them than butter. Of course, margarine isn’t healthy, it’s ultra processed, but the power of advertising shouldn’t be underestimated.”

But somewhere along the line, margarine fell off the average Australian’s shopping list, with butter bouncing back up.

Was it due to margarine makers losing the battle for the advertising airwaves?

“That’s really the purpose of advertising — to keep a product at the front of the shopper’s mind,” WA Farmers dairy policy director Laura Stocker said.

The most successful spread commercials in recent years have emanated from the dairy sector.

Fonterra have championed its Cobden workforce and south-west Victorian heritage of its Western Star butter brand in a new campaign.

Just before its 2016-17 demise, Murray Goulburn rolled out a swag of chuckle-inducing ads, cheekily warning Australians of the ‘damage’ done to tastebuds by soy products.

“The move to butter is part of a trend that has been growing for years,” advertising entrepreneur Siimon Reynolds said.

“That’s the growing attraction among Australians towards more natural foods. Compared to margarine, butter is viewed as a much more natural and therefore healthier. Whether that’s true I don’t know, but it’s certainly the general perception.

“On top of that, the butter companies have been advertising consistently, so more people are thinking of butter when they pass the dairy section of the supermarket.”

Honeycomb Effect director Carolyn Miller said advertising can have a marked effect on popularity, but there was also other trends at play.

“Firstly, the premiumisation in the category, with new butter entrants such as Lurpak and Pepe Saya offering a great flavour and indulgent product, which in turn elevates the entire butter segment,” the advertising expert said.

“Secondly, the general trend towards natural food. Margarine is perceived as a synthetic and processed product, so it is not aligned to this trend. It may also be perceived as a but old fashioned, which if margarine were advertising more frequently they could certainly overcome.”

Danish brand Lurpak knows there’s two types of way to get your brand across on television — overt and covert. The ‘overt’ side are the clearly defined commercials slotted between television programmes and the ‘covert’ side as a sponsored product on Channel 10’s top-rating Masterchef.

“There is the growing ‘foodie’ trend where we increasingly want restaurant quality food in our own homes,” Ms Miller said.

“We don’t see margarine being used on Masterchef – if fact there is an almost excessive use of butter in cooking programs.”

SPREAD THE WORD

How advertising for the spreadable stuff has changed over the years

Margarine’s golden oldies

MEADOW LEA

Meadow Lea advertising.

Created by Alan Morris and Alan Johnson of Mojo Advertising in the late 1970s, “You oughta be congratulated”, the catchy tagline for Meadow Lea helpfully rhymed with margarine’s supposed health benefits of being polyunsaturated.

ETA 5-star margarine

Actor Bunny Gibson as Rita the ETA Eater.

Portrayed by Matlock Police actor Bunny Gibson, Rita persuaded Australian households to switch to ETA 5-star margarine in the 1980s and gave schoolyards across the country a catchphrase: Ripper Rita!

New kids on the butter block

WESTERN STAR

Western Star butter advertising.

A multiple winner of Australian dairy food awards, Western Star Butter has promoted its ties to Victoria’s Western District in recent years – both on its packaging and in television advertisements with its

Cobden workforce.

LURPAK

Lurpak butter advertising.

Danish butter brand Lurpak has made inroads in the Australian supermarket sales, primarily through its association with Channel Ten’s Masterchef programme. Current and former contestants in the cooking show feature in its promotional material.

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