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Merkley+Partners, working with content partner Funny or Die and Facebook Live, has tied into the election season with an entertaining new campaign on behalf of Florida’s Natural orange juice called “The Great Pulp Debate”  (http://www.greatpulpdebate.com).

Merkley developed the multifaceted campaign addressing one of the key issues facing Americans today:  No Pulp, Some Pulp or Most Pulp.  

Elements of the campaign include:

• The Great Pulp Debate Poll: Open at http://www.greatpulpdebate.com, where people can cast their vote and proudly share their “pulp position” via social media to encourage broader participation.
• The Great Pulp Debate Attack Ad (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY7LE3X0Cpw):  To garner last-minute voters, attack ad videos breaking today pit 12-year old Grayson Totman, making the case for a “No Pulp” household, against Mom and Dad, who respond with attack ads of their own.
• Facebook Live Great Pulp Debate: An historic Facebook Live broadcast of the first (and probably only) Great Pulp Pulp Debate, where Pulpiticians battled it out in a virtual town hall setting with Q&A from Funny Or Die.  Noteworthy: this represented the first time onscreen graphical polling has been used on Facebook Live.  
• Facebook Live Focus Group: After the debate, a Facebook Live “Frank Luntz-style” focus group was held to gauge public perceptions.  
• Facebook Live Cable News Show: A cable news-style Facebook Live segment where Funny or Die debate moderator and newscaster review the Pulp Debate and answer more live questions from the internet public.  
• The Great Pulp Propensity Quiz (http://www.funnyordie.com/articles/df73bb1e32/florida-s-natural?_cc=__d_...): A humorous, interactive and shareable quiz posted on Funny or Die and Facebook that determines the participant’s actual pulp preferences.
• Great Pulp Debate Swag: Facebook covers and Twitter headers with messages corresponding to how the participant voted (for example, “A tall glass of indifference” and “The middle ground is quite nice this time of year” for a “Some Pulp” vote) and stickers.  
• Final Results: The day before the actual Presidential election day (Nov. 7), the final results will be tallied and announced, and the people-preferred variety will bask in victorious glory!

“As the only national orange juice brand owned by citrus farmers, we are the perfect people to settle this debate once and for all,” said Kelly Wade, Marketing Manager, Florida’s Natural.  “Considering the craziness of this campaign season, we thought a light-hearted approach was the best way to raise visibility for the brand.”

Erich Hartmann, Group Creative Director, Merkley+Partners, added “Everyone knows that pulp is polarizing (in a fun way), so we needed the perfect media and content partner to help give our election/debate campaign idea that little extra bit of awesome. Funny or Die was an obvious choice, and the collaborative content became the tent poles of our campaign. The tone was perfect, too: just the right amount of endearing political snark, especially for this election year. Being the first to use interactive, live, on-screen polling graphics for Facebook Live was a very cool bonus.”