What Irish Farmers, Free Range Cows and Johnny Rotten Tell Us About Butter Eaters

Butter advertising. There’s a lot of it about at the moment.

Advertising is expensive. The costs can run into millions, so companies want to get their advertising right. This they try and do by talking to consumers about butter in general, and their brand compared with competitors’ brands. Armed with all this market research, companies come up with the messages and slogans they think will persuade us that their butter is best.

So a look at what each of the brands is saying in their advertising gives us a good steer on what is important to consumers when it comes to butter.

Three of the four biggest brands are foreign owned – Lurpak from ARLA, Kerrygold from the Irish Dairy Board, and Anchor from Fonterra. Only Countrylife owned by Dairy Crest is British.

Here’s what each is saying.



Lurpak, the brand leader, sells on taste. Their slogan is “ Good food deserves Lurpak”, and it reminds us that taste is all important when it comes to a food product.

More interesting is the Kerrygold advert. Aware of growing respect on the part of the public for farmers, a group of healthy looking Irish dairy farmers explain that they are part of a cooperative which means they get a fair price for their milk. The advert shows that they love their cows, implying that they will be well cared for. They say the cows are grass fed, and this, plus showing acres of lush green fields, puts across a feeling that Kerrygold is a natural, wholesome product. Whilst a very complicated set of messages, the overall tone reassures those consumers worried about farmers being fairly rewarded, those worried about animal welfare, and those who want to be sure their butter comes from cows fed naturally on grass.

Anchor with their slogan “The free range butter company”, emphasises that their cows are free to roam outside all year. To the strains of the theme tune from the Great Escape, a cartoon cow astride a motor bike leaps the fence to freedom. By using the words free range with their overtones of a better life, the clear implication is that Anchor cows have a better life than those who cannot get out. Again it’s an animal welfare story, but with a natural slant too, for a cow free to roam will by implication only eat good fresh grass.

And so to Countrylife featuring Johnny Rotten, or John Lydon as he is now known. Unashamedly jingoistic, it trumpets the brand’s Britishness, picking up on the consumer trend to support British brands. It also has a quality message too, with Lydon saying at the end that he buys because of the butter’s great taste.

What do these advertising messages suggest about consumers, butter and British dairying?

The thorniest issue has to be indoor housed cows with the twin implications of a life cooped up in a small space, and a questionable diet that does not include fresh grass . According to the NFU, only 1% of British cows are kept in this way. Nevertheless, two big, foreign owned brands feel they can use the fact that their cows are able to go outside as a reason to buy their products. Such advertising might raise a doubt in consumers' minds about exactly what sort of a life the British cow has, and what precisely is going into the butter product.

More straightforwardly, it is clear that food products have to taste great to succeed, and that the main reason to buy butter as opposed to margarine is that it is an all natural food.

Finally, the Kerrygold advertising reminds us that not only Irish farmers enjoy a good reputation with the public. There is a warmth now towards farmers and farming which should be

cherished.