Bubba Enlists an Alien and a Yeti to Tout Its Burgers as Meat Makes a Comeback

The new campaign, the first from AOR Familiar Creatures, hits during an American meat-buying boom

 

Adweek | April 23, 2025

 

 

By T.L. Stanley

Yetis are carnivores, aliens are skeptics, and close living quarters can bring out the snark in anyone. Mythical roommates—they’re just like us.

These and other revelations unspool in a cheeky new commercial for Bubba burgers, which stars a yeti and an alien as otherworldly spokescharacters with a down-to-earth message about a brand that’s been a supermarket staple for three decades.

It’s the first work from Familiar Creatures, named agency of record late last year, marking a new direction for Bubba. Previous advertising has leaned on nostalgic themes, often featuring family bonding at backyard barbecues, according to brand manager Elizabeth Rice.

The new campaign takes “a more bold stance,” Rice said, aimed at driving home the brand’s positioning as a no-filler, no-additive “100% USDA Choice Chuck Beef” product in the frozen food aisle.

 

 

“We’re amplifying simple facts, trying to educate consumers about what’s in the products and dispel some misconceptions about frozen burgers,” Rice told ADWEEK. “We want to build trust and let consumers know they won’t have to spend time reading a long ingredient label.”

The campaign, with the new tagline “You Bubba Believe It,” will be the brand’s most significant marketing spend to date, with boosts specifically in media platforms such as connected TV and online video, Rice said.

Intertwining trends

Its launch coincides with at least two buzzworthy trends: the meat renaissance, with the American market breaking sales records at nearly $105 billion last year, and the clean eating push, where consumers are demanding fewer additives and artificial ingredients.

“The category has been dominated by very rational claims and a lot of stock photography,” Dustin Artz, co-founder at Familiar Creatures, said, noting the agency did a top-to-bottom “brand workshop” on winning the account. “But even though our characters are hyperbolic and over the top, we wanted the humor to be not too broad—it’s a dry wit.”

Production values had to be strong for the spot, called “Unbelievable Lunch,” Artz said. The agency partnered with Spang TV for visual effects, along with Hollywood-level makeup artists and costume designers because “it couldn’t look cartoony or slapstick.”

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