Protein bar purveyor David made a splash this summer with the unexpected debut of frozen, wild-caught cod fillets online and in at least one New York specialty grocery store. The limited release wasn’t just a quirky product drop: it was a calculated flex designed to spotlight how the bar’s protein-to-calorie ratio stacks up against one of the cleanest whole-food benchmarks out there: boiled whitefish.
The real meat of the move was the marketing campaign masterminded by David co-founder Peter Rahal and branding studio Day Job. Billboards cropped up across Manhattan declaring, “Boiled cod. Slightly more protein per calorie than our bars.” On Instagram, the brand fueled the intrigue with a five-day teaser sequence that culminated in the grand cod reveal — part performance art, part nutritional mic drop.
The tongue-in-cheek launch also doubled as a clapback to critics who’ve questioned the brand’s highly processed formulations and as a wry nod to the backlash and litigation surrounding its acquisition of an ingredient supplier earlier this year. In true startup fashion, David turned controversy into content — and cod into one of the most memorable protein product stunts of the year.
