RM, thank you for recognizing and posting that the Beef Checkoff can do some good.
However, I do not understand your comment "If beef ads aren't offending the grain....chicken....pork industry, they aren't effective."
It seems many people believe the "Beef It's What's For Dinner" ads, among others, are very effective. Sure are a lot of peope who say they recognize them when asked in research questionnaires about them. Even the "Rodeo" them music is recognized and connected with beef. Now the new Boston Garden ads use similar sounding music and people say they are thinking "hey, that's one of those beef ads" when they hear it. (I'm hearing the Boston Garden ad comment from personal anecdotes, not research.)
Concerning the USDA Food Guide Pyramid......were it not for the work of the Checkoff, beef would be in a far less beneficial position there. For far too long there have been many people in positions of power in government food programs who firmly believe less red meat is better for people.Carol Tucker Forman was very influential for years along those lines. We can thank her for getting more alternative proteins in school lunches, for one. Probably high cost was the main reason she didn't succeed in getting beef replaced with yogurt! Other commodities have been far ahead of beef in influencing those powerful bureaucrats. Years of work by NCBA, it's predecessor organizations, and since it's inception, the Checkoff, CBB, et. al. have been working to better position beef. Our industry had to do the research to prove health benefits of beef. You also need to remember that beef is about the only food on that guide pyramid that is eaten at less than desirable amounts by most people. The recommendation is, I believe, five to seven ounces per day of beef.
There are ads pointing out the greater nutrition in a three ounce serving of beef than in comparable serving of poultry, even of the white meat, and the very similar fat content.
True, you and I may recognize that the fat in beef is beneficial. However, until the research is completed to prove that point, beef ads cannot make that claim.