Plant-Based Food Brand Uses AI To Imagine Animals Leading Long, Happy Lives
Old MacDonald—from the popular nursery rhyme—was old. Unfortunately, the animals on his farm presumably didn’t live long.
Because cows, chickens, and pigs are seen as meat, they rarely survive past their youth, despite naturally having pretty extensive lifespans. Vegan food tech brand NotCo has now leaned into the evolving world of AI art to picture livestock in old age, as though they never had to be slaughtered.
The plant-based innovator is famed for its proprietary AI technology, ‘Giuseppe’, which dissects animal-based foods down to a molecular level to closely mimic their functionality, flavor, and texture using just plants. To date, its products—including NotMeat, NotChicken, NotMilk, NotBurger, and NotIceCream—are available in several grocery stores.
NotMilk, for instance, is made up of ingredients like pea protein, water, sunflower oil, and pineapple and cabbage juice concentrates, but is said to taste and behave like dairy. The Chile-based company says that its offerings produce far fewer emissions than animal-derived foods.
Now, back to the campaign. Did you know cows can live up to 48 years, pigs have a potential mortality of 23 years, and chickens can enjoy more than 20 years in nature? These striking, photorealistic posters, developed by creative agency AKQA Bloom, use AI to visually age up farm animals, fantasizing dignified lives for these creatures.
View this post on Instagram
NotCo’s new chief marketing officer Fernando Machado, renowned for previously spearheading many of Burger King’s incredible campaigns, tells Muse by Clio that the company’s processes are baked in artificial intelligence, so it makes a lot of sense for it to dabble in this other, trendy form of AI.
The resulting visuals are an extremely rare sight, as these animals are often killed for food within months, or even days, of their birth. Now, members of the public will be more familiar with the concept as the graphics will appear on social media, billboards, and other out-of-home spots in the US, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, and Mexico.
[via Muse by Clio and Little Black Book, images via NotCo]
