Palmettovore Campaign Wastes $50,000 Attacking Free Trade

Kevin Dietrich
June 22, 2009

The first image on the webpage for the Department of Agriculture’s Palmettovore advertising campaign is a hen laying a big fat egg.

That’s entirely appropriate because Palmettovore, unveiled last month with great fanfare, is one of the sillier promotional campaigns in recent memory. Worse than that, it’s an outright waste of South Carolina tax dollars -- nearly $54,000 for the current fiscal year.

In less than two years, the department has paid out more than $2.5 million to Columbia advertising agency Chernoff Newman, which created the Palmettovore campaign and also handles the Certified SC Grown effort. And given that Palmettovore didn’t launch until mid-May, it’s likely the agriculture department’s tab with Chernoff Newman will be much higher.

A Palmettovore, for those unfamiliar with the term, is “a person who attempts to eat only farm products grown and processed in South Carolina.”

The campaign features actors dressed up as fruits and vegetables – Tom Tomato, Priscilla Peach, Carter Corn, Chuck Collard, Stella Strawberry and Walter Watermelon – and makes the case for South Carolinians to “buy local.”

The rationale for the Palmettovore initiative is that South Carolinians should eat more local produce and products because they’re fresher, they’re healthier, better for the environment and doing so will boost the state’s economy. In reality, Palmettovore is nothing more than economic protectionism and a subsidy for the SC agriculture industry dressed up in feel-good pseudo economics.

Consider the wording in the videos on the Palmettovore website. Tom Tomato, depicted as “the leader of the Palmettovores,” spouts off several dubious claims:

• Claim: “Only 6 percent of us are being consumed in the state of South Carolina.”
• Fact: As long as South Carolina farmers sell their products somewhere, it doesn't matter where the produce is eaten. Money earned by South Carolina farmers stays in the state regardless of where the food is consumed.

• Claim: “We used to be the biggest supplier of our own food. Now we’re sending our food dollars out of state.”
• Fact: Many items for sale in South Carolina grocery stores aren't grown in significant enough quantities to meet local demand. These include bananas, potatoes, oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, pineapples, artichokes, olives and wine. The Palmettovore campaign seemingly suggests citizens should stop purchasing these items and buy only what grows in the state. In reality, the concept of bringing in produce from other areas while shipping some local produce to other consumers is called free trade.

• Claim: “We’re healthier, we’re sweeter, we’re greener, we leave a smaller carbon footprint, we don’t have to travel as far.”
• Fact: The modern transportation network moves fresh produce from field to supermarket in hours. It’s unlikely a consumer can distinguish between a peach trucked from within the state and a peach trucked from Georgia. The carbon footprint claim is equally flawed. If it is better for the environment to buy goods that don't travel as far, shouldn’t Columbia residents reject peaches grown in Gaffney for those from Augusta, Ga., and Conway consumers turn aside shrimp raised in Hilton Head for those from Wilmington, N.C. – since Augusta is closer to Columbia and Conway nearer to Wilmington?

• Claim: “We need more South Carolinians to buy local. It creates more jobs.”
• Fact: Finally, the truth. Palmettovore is nothing more than a subsidy to promote state agriculture jobs. This is just one more example of state government wasting tax dollars paid by all South Carolinians to promote a narrow product benefiting just a few.

Perhaps the most startling aspect of the Palmettovore campaign is that people working at the state agrigulture department and Chernoff Newmann overlooked the obvious unintended consequence of encouraging citizens to buy only local produce. This tacitly encourages out-of-state consumers to do the same and stop buying South Carolina produce.

Basically, the S.C. Department of Agriculture has spent more than $50,000 of scarce tax dollars to encourage Georgia and North Carolina residents near the state line to stay on their side of the border and 'buy local' as well.

In retrospect, it appears the only big winner benefitting from the Palmettovore campaign is the advertising agency Chernoff Newman. One thing is certain, South Carolina as a whole isn’t getting its money’s worth from this poorly planned, poorly messaged and poorly executed marketing campaign.