Meat snack brand Peperami is running a spoof promotional campaign encouraging consumers in London and the South East of England to report potholes that they think need filling in, with backing from YouTube comedy star Jack Jones.
To kickstart the campaign, Peperami sent its brand character Animal onto the streets on London at the start of March to highlight potholes with flags and special warning tape.
The brand is inviting fans to join the ‘Peper-army’ by Tweeting pictures of potholes to its @Peperami account using the hashtag #HangryHole. They will be entered into a prize draw to win kits containing flags and cordon tape which they can use to highlight holes in their own neighbourhoods.
A spokesperson for Peperami said: “Peperami’s mission in life is to fill hungry stomach holes. However, there’s nothing we find more annoying than empty holes in the street and London is plagued with annoying craters. We reckoned it was about time something was done so we sent Animal out on the street to give the potholes a good porking!”
YouTube comedy star Jack Jones also got involved by going out on the streets of London offering the public “a good porking” – viewers can watch the reactions to him feeding their #HangryHole here.
The pothole activity was sparked off by a report from cycling campaign group Fill That Hole, which claimed 1,860 potholes have been reported across London in the last 12 months.
Peperami was acquired from Unilever by US meat snacking giant Jack Link’s for an undisclosed sum in May 2015. The brand is well-known for running a variety of promotional stunts over the years, including its 1998 ‘Fanimal’ campaign where consumers could win a talking, wriggling toy Animal that spouted rude football slogans, in reference to the World Cup being held in France that year. The campaign went on to win the Grand Prix at the ISP Awards in 1999 (now the IPM Awards).
