Wesson Oil is encouraging men to embrace cooking duties this holiday season with a new holiday campaign, according to a press release. “It Starts With Wesson” puts men in the role of family chef for the first time in the brand’s marketing history. 

“It Starts With Wesson” will run until Nov. 28 and is largely centered around Thanksgiving. Campaign elements include editorial, social media content, digital programmatic, out of home and other platforms. Manic Pixie handled advertising while Panopoly handled media planning.  

Campaign materials are meant to flip the script on the traditional roles women often occupy in advertising. Disproportionately, women are portrayed as responsible for most of the household chores while the man takes a less active role. Wesson is attempting to challenge this portrayal with advertisements, such as one where a man cooks pancakes while a woman gets ready for work. In another, a mom is portrayed as relaxed during a holiday meal since she had help in the kitchen. Supporting elements include earned media featuring Kyle Andreasen, Wesson’s test kitchen chef, who will share tips on how to deep-fry a turkey. 

While Wesson is looking to break gender stereotypes, research suggests the gender divide has been growing recently in the kitchen of the average consumer. The “cooking gender gap” widened in 2022, with men cooking less than they had during the previous three years. 

The campaign coincides with the 125th anniversary of Wesson. In 2019, Richardson International acquired the brand. In an attempt to modernize the oil marketer for the contemporary consumer, Wesson underwent a brand refresh in 2022 following an over two decade marketing hiatus.