ARCHIVEBeyond Meat Bets on Humor and Heart Health to Win January
Beyond Meat's "Literally The Least You Can Do" is a January 2024 integrated advertising campaign for Beyond Steak, created by independent agency Chemistry, that uses humor and certified health credentials to position plant-based meat as the one New Year's resolution Americans can actually keep.
Beyond Meat launched the campaign during the week of January 1, 2024, timed deliberately to the annual cycle of resolution-making and resolution-breaking that defines the early weeks of every new year in the United States. The strategic anchor is Beyond Steak itself, which carries two clinically meaningful distinctions: certification as a heart-healthy food by the American Heart Association, and recognition as the first plant-based meat product to meet the nutritional guidelines of the American Diabetes Association Better Choices for Life program. Those credentials transform what might otherwise be a lighthearted seasonal stunt into a substantive health argument.
The campaign runs across television, online video, social media, and digital placements, giving it the reach of a fully integrated effort rather than a social-only moment. Its creative face is actor and producer Rizwan Manji, best known to American audiences for his portrayal of Ray Butani on the comedy series Schitt's Creek, who demonstrates the approachable ease of choosing Beyond Steak as a practical, delicious path to healthier eating. The campaign sits within a broader marketing platform that also includes the October 2023 campaign "This Changes Everything" and the brand's ongoing "There's Goodness Here" content series, all oriented toward educating US consumers about the nutritional benefits of Beyond Meat's products in a tone that is informative without being preachy.
ARCHIVEBeyond Meat identified a precise cultural window. January represents the highest concentration of health intention among American consumers, a moment when the gap between aspiration and action is at its widest and when food brands compete intensely for relevance. Akerho "AK" Oghoghomeh, Senior Vice President of Brand Marketing at Beyond Meat, articulated the rationale directly: "January is a time of making and then often breaking resolutions, with health-related resolutions typically at the top of the list. We wanted to emphasize Beyond Steak's heart-healthy credentials by showing consumers in a light-hearted way that there is one New Year's resolution — eating healthy — that is both easy and delicious with our products," as reported by The Drum.
The competitive landscape in the United States makes this positioning increasingly important. Impossible Foods remains the most prominent direct rival in the premium plant-based meat segment, while Conagra Brands' Gardein line competes aggressively at a value price point. In this environment, third-party health certifications function as durable differentiators that competitors cannot simply copy through creative work alone. Beyond Steak's dual validation from the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association Better Choices for Life program gives the brand a factual platform that advertising can amplify but did not have to manufacture.
The global plant-based meat market was estimated at approximately USD 9.57 billion in 2024 with a projected compound annual growth rate through 2030, according to Grand Research Store, though market sizing estimates vary considerably depending on category definition. Within the US market specifically, brand recognition and nutritional trust remain the primary purchase drivers for plant-based meat shoppers, making credentialed health claims a strategically sound foundation for a campaign targeting healthy eating as a New Year's resolution.
Director Rich Downie of production company Fox Den helmed the campaign, continuing the creative partnership that produced Beyond Meat's preceding "This Changes Everything" campaign in October 2023. The continuity of director, agency, and lead talent across consecutive campaigns reflects a deliberate brand decision to build a recognizable comedic voice rather than reset the creative platform with every new flight.
Rizwan Manji, whose portrayal of Ray Butani on Schitt's Creek established him as a performer capable of grounded, warm comedy, carries the campaign's central argument through demonstration rather than declaration. The creative approach trusts Manji to embody the campaign's thesis — that switching to Beyond Steak for the sake of healthy eating is so simple it barely qualifies as effort — rather than relying on voiceover or statistics to make the case. This performance-led structure is consistent with how Chemistry has positioned the brand across its recent work: consumer education delivered through entertainment.
Wes Whitener, Copywriter and Creative Director at Chemistry, was involved in shaping the campaign's voice, as documented by The Drum and on weswhitener.com. The title itself, "Literally The Least You Can Do," functions as both a self-deprecating joke and a genuine product claim, acknowledging the scale of New Year's ambition while reframing a single dietary swap as a meaningful act. The integrated delivery across TV, online video, social, and digital allowed the comedic premise to be expressed at different lengths and registers for different contexts, with the core Manji performance anchoring recognition across placements.
No independently verified sales or viewership metrics for "Literally The Least You Can Do" are publicly available at the time of this analysis. What is documented is the campaign's editorial reception in the United States trade press, which provides a meaningful proxy for creative effectiveness. The Drum published favorable coverage on January 5, 2024, framing the work as a playful and well-constructed response to New Year's resolution fatigue, according to The Drum. The same publication included the campaign in a "Best Ads of the Week" roundup on January 10, 2024, describing it as a digital-first effort with strong comedic execution, as reported by The Drum.
Structurally, the campaign demonstrates several qualities associated with durable brand-building work. The use of a retained talent in Rizwan Manji builds recognition equity across campaign cycles rather than spending it in a single flight. The dual health certifications from the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association provide a factual spine that gives the humor purpose and longevity. The timing, anchored to New Year's resolutions and healthy eating intent, connects the product to a moment of genuine consumer relevance rather than manufactured occasion.
Clapboard rates "Literally The Least You Can Do" at 63 out of 100. The score reflects a campaign that executes its strategic brief with clarity and craft, but whose impact is bounded by the scale of Beyond Meat's media investment and the inherent challenge of sustaining plant-based meat category growth in a competitive US market.
"Literally The Least You Can Do" is a January 2024 integrated campaign by Beyond Meat for Beyond Steak, created by agency Chemistry. It uses actor Rizwan Manji to frame plant-based eating as the simplest New Year's resolution, supported by American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association certifications. It ran across TV, online video, social, and digital in the United States.
Rizwan Manji is an actor and producer best known for playing Ray Butani on Schitt's Creek. Beyond Meat retained him from the preceding "This Changes Everything" campaign in October 2023, building continuity across its comedic health-education platform. His grounded, warm comic style suited the campaign's light-hearted but credentialed approach to promoting healthy eating.
Beyond Steak holds two certifications central to this campaign. It is certified as a heart-healthy food by the American Heart Association, and it became the first plant-based meat product to meet the nutritional guidelines of the American Diabetes Association Better Choices for Life program, as stated by Beyond Meat. Both credentials underpin the campaign's healthy eating message.
Independent full-service agency Chemistry created the campaign, and director Rich Downie of production company Fox Den directed it. Both partners also produced Beyond Meat's prior campaign, "This Changes Everything," in October 2023, as reported by The Drum, making this a continuation of an established creative collaboration across the plant-based meat brand's recent work.
The campaign is part of a larger platform that includes "This Changes Everything" and the "There's Goodness Here" content series. Together, these efforts aim to educate US consumers about the nutritional benefits of Beyond Meat products in an approachable tone. The January 2024 launch timed the Beyond Steak message to peak healthy eating intent around New Year's resolutions.
Clapboard rates "Literally The Least You Can Do" at 63 out of 100. The score reflects clear strategic execution and capable craft, anchored by strong health credentials and well-deployed talent in Rizwan Manji. The rating is tempered by limited publicly available performance data and the competitive pressures Beyond Meat faces in the US plant-based meat market.
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