Land O'Lakes brings 'farmcore' fashion to the runway in Paris (Wisconsin)

To stand out in the dairy aisle, Land O'Lakes is hitting the runway.

The national butter brand recently staged a fashion show in Paris, Wis., featuring models in field-worn jackets, jeans and overalls — sourced from the cooperative's farmers — in an ad campaign meant to "bring the farmcore aesthetic to life," said Chief Marketing Officer Heather Malenshek.

"We have a very loyal customer base, but we also want to reach a younger audience," she said. "Like everybody, we're trying to find innovative ways to get people's attention."

So Arden Hills-based Land O'Lakes is going all-in on farmcore, a social media trend that romanticizes rural life with chic workwear.

"We're having clothing be the star of the show so we can tell the stories of our farmer-owners in different ways," Malenshek said.

Fourth-generation Winona County farmer Becky Clark told the company she donated work gloves "because we do a lot of hard and dirty work with our hands."

Clark wore the gloves when rebuilding her blizzard-battered barn in 2019.

"I also thought about what my grandpa would have donated, and I think he would've picked his shoes," she said. "He wore those out so much they had a hole in them, but he just wore a sandwich bag over his socks instead of getting a new pair."

All the donated items carry tags with short stories about their owners to connect the food to the farmer — a long-running theme in Land O'Lakes advertising.

"Farmers are the backbone of our nation, but are not always thought of when you're buying a pound of butter or a bag of shredded cheese," Pat Dunneback, group brand director at ad agency Battery, said in a news release.

Founded in 1902, the Land O'Lakes has more than 1,000 farmer-owners and last year had $16.8 billion in revenue.

The farmcore campaign launched in September to coincide with Paris Fashion Week, and the results so far are promising, Malenshek said.

Land O'Lakes' "Eat it like you own it" campaign for Land O'Lakes has given a 26% "purchase intent lift" among younger consumers, according to Battery, the agency behind it.

Malenshek said it's hard to stand out "in what is essentially a commodity category" when the biggest differences among direct butter and cheese competitors might be the name on the label or the price.

Growing dairy brands like Tillamook have quickly won favor with Gen Z and millennial shoppers, Malenshek said.

As the "big guy" in the market, Land O'Lakes needs to keep telling its story to connect with more of those younger consumers, she said.

"'Eat it like you own it' is helping to tell that story about farmer ownership," she said. "These younger consumers really do care about brands making some difference in the world."