Ajinomoto Dinner with Goop

We created an influencer campaign—without the influencer.

CHALLENGE

For years, the clean eating community has incorrectly labeled monosodium glutamate as “unclean”. Their source? The world’s most influential clean eater of all, Oscar-winning actress and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow. Her Goop empire has spread fear and misinformation about MSG to our target audience—a huge problem for Ajinomoto, the largest producer of MSG.

IDEA

Considering Gwyneth’s massive influence in food and pop culture, we knew leveraging her starpower would be critical in solving our challenge. But despite our best efforts to meet, she didn’t respond. So we had a bold idea: what if we could make her the influencer of our campaign—without actually hiring her?

EXECUTION

It started with a video inviting Gwyneth to a friendly, fact-based discussion about MSG over a delicious, umami-filled dinner. To draw attention, we launched paid ads targeting Goop staffers, made a site debunking “clean eating” myths, and whipped up a whole tasting menu that we also turned into cooking content on social.

For our dinner, we chose a venue steps away from Goop HQ, saved a seat for our guest of honor and stacked the rest with members of the media. And guess who didn’t show. But Gwyneth’s absence only fueled the media storm, with countless headlines calling out Goop’s unscientific policies, while overwhelming support from consumers flooded the internet. Today, so many more clean eaters have warmed up to MSG, and so, too, has Goop, with their articles featuring misinformation about the ingredient now permanently revised.