HelloFresh Campaign Claims TV Chef Shows Put Pressure On Home Cooks

Recipe kit delivery service HelloFresh has launched a new campaign which takes a documentary style look at the art of weeknight cooking in three real Australian homes starring non-actors.

According to new research, by recipe kit delivery service HelloFresh, four out of five Australians (81 percent) feel cooking shows have led to unrealistic expectations. The report found that while 87 per cent of the nation want to be more adventurous in the kitchen, growing expectations and busy lives mean that two thirds of Australians (68 per cent) have less than ten recipes in their repertoire and one in five of us even have set meals for some or every day of the week.

Former Masterchef contestant and HelloFresh CEO Tom Rutledge said the study was commissioned as part of the company’s new campaign to explore Australian dinnertime and encourage households to cook and eat together.

“Two thirds of Australians (66 per cent) said they felt the idea of a formal dinnertime has become a thing of the past, that makes us really sad. Home cooks are obviously feeling the pressure of having multiple commitments and this coupled with high expectations from cooking shows and other food inspiration has meant many of us feel what we’re serving up isn’t good enough.”

Bronte mother Emily Velder who features in the advertisement at home with her husband and three children had been a meal box customer for six months, saying she signed up for HelloFresh after realising the question “what’s for dinner” had become one of the most stressful moments in her day.

“I’d still be working but my phone would go at around 4pm every day without fail from someone in the house asking me what I was making that night. It was becoming diabolical, everyone would come home famished and i’d often be rushing to the shops or chucking something together last minute as soon as I got in the door,” she said.

Like the 87 per cent of the Australians surveyed, she said her children Billy Jack, 14, Annie Rose, 13 and Daniel, 10, wanted to try new things and that the three had taken an interest in helping in the kitchen since the recipe kits started to arrive.

“Their palates have become so much more exotic. There’s a bit of excitement when the box arrives and they learn what we’ll be eating that week and they’ve started getting involved – my youngest often reads me the steps or I just give him one of the steps to do.”

Julie Grufstedt, head of brand HelloFresh Australia said: “This campaign signals HelloFresh Australia’s first foray into brand communications, built on a simple insight that cooking with HelloFresh has wonderful effect of bringing people together around the table. We worked closely with Emotive to create an honest and beautiful look into weeknight dinners in Australia.”

Mark Harris, executive creative director at Emotive said: “In modern life, families rarely spend much time together during weekday dinner times. We wanted to show how HelloFresh provides such incredibly diverse and healthy meals everyday. It inspires families to cook and eat together, no matter how busy they are.

“To capture this transformative effect, we filmed three real families in their own homes as they took delivery of and cooked with HelloFresh ingredients. With no actors, or rehearsals the resulting films, directed by Stefan Hunt, are beautifully observed, natural portraits that highlight the emotional benefit of the product, and not just the product itself. Here’s to the everyday cooks.”

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