David’s Newest ‘Innovation’ Smells Kinda… Fishy

Peter Rahal built his reputation on RXBAR, a product that clearly stated its few ingredients on the front of the package.

Rahal’s newest product, part of his growing David protein bar empire, purports to have just one ingredient: Frozen, boiled cod.

In a marketing move that represents a doubling down on the protein content of the company’s main product line, the David protein bar, Rahal’s growing juggernaut David has released a campaign that compares the composition of the bars to that of the fish, which is one of the purest forms of animal protein in the world. (Super-buff star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson ate 52 oz. of cod per day for several years, Muscle and Fitness magazine once reported).

While David is really selling David-branded cod – Nosh ordered some, of course – the point of the “new product release” and ongoing marketing campaign is to underscore the high protein-to-calorie ratio of the David protein bar, which is available in slightly more appealing flavors like Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Cake Batter.

As part of the campaign, which was dreamed up by Rahal and branding firm Day Job, David has put up billboards around SoHo, Manhattan. One reads “Boiled cod. Slightly more protein per calorie than our bars.”

Additionally, David’s cod is available for purchase at Happier Grocery, a SoHo grocery store. The company’s social media channels also trumpeted the release, with its Instagram feed dropping to a five-day series of teases that culminated with the cod release.

When asked by Nosh if he expected the cod fillets to become David’s primary product, Rahal replied “We’ll let the customer and the market decide,” adding, with a laugh, “it’s all about the product-market fit.”

Answering Critics

Rahal agreed that in addition to underscoring the bar brand’s protein content, he meant the cod campaign to be a bit of a repudiation of some of the chatter that has surrounded his new company’s ingredient deck, which lacks the outright simplicity of the RXBAR, instead relying on manufactured ingredients like EPG, a fat replacer.

​​When David debuted last August, critics balked at some of its “unrecognizable” ingredients, while others championed its “unparalleled” protein-to-calorie ratio, illuminating a diametrical divide in consumer attitudes toward health and nutrition.

In an interview with Nosh last year, Rahal described the two brands as “literal opposites,” noting, “In our business, there are two schools of thought. One is that your ingredient deck is more important than anything else. And then, in the other school of thought, your nutrition facts are everything.”

Earlier this year, David doubled down on its stance, rolling out a new recipe for its bars featuring Whole Foods Market-banned artificial flavors and sweeteners such as sucralose, maltitol and acesulfame potassium. With this move, it appeared influencer Andrew Huberman-backed David was committing more firmly to the idea that calories matter more than “clean” labels.

Meanwhile, David’s sales have continued to grow; New York is its best market, Rahal said, largely thanks to a distribution agreement with powerful beverage wholesaler Big Geyser.

This spring the company drew headlines for a $75 million investment that allowed the company, which drew a valuation of $700 million, to purchase its supplier of EPG. That led to some backlash, with companies filing breach-of-contract lawsuits against David, supplier Epogee, and Rahal himself.

The use of pure boiled cod would seem to be a not-that-subtle dig at that criticism.

The cod is shipping frozen, Rahal said, dropping references to another wave sweeping the natural product world.

“What’s important is that it’s boiled, not fried, and uses no seed oil,” he said. “If you put seed oil on it, it destroys the protein-to-calorie ratio!”