-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. A woman wearing what can only be described as rags struggles to push something large, round, and yellow up a mountain. She lets out a primal scream.
A female comedian's face appears overhead, shimmering through ominous clouds. This is not the cold open for a wacky alt-comedy web series — it's an ad for a plant-based cheese company . The company in question is called Plonts, and the large yellow thing is, of course, a humongous wheel of (plant-based) cheese.
From here, things get weirder: The comedian whose face looms large in the sky is Kate Berlant, a performer known for her screwball and self-referential work. As Berlant quibbles with the woman on the mountain, her wry and goofy presence instantly sets the ad's tone. With this tongue-in-cheek approach, Plonts seems to be saying that this is not a regular plant-based cheese brand — this is a cool plant-based cheese brand, one that doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't want you, the consumer, to either.
This ethos is aptly summarized by the ad's tagline: Buying Plonts "won't save the planet," it reads. "But it probably won't hurt." In the plant-based protein space, Plonts is zigging where other brands are zagging.
Many plant-based brands — whether it's oat milk or fake-beef burgers that really bleed — introduced themselves to consumers by hyping up th.