(Courtesy of The Economist)

A food truck branded in the distinctive red hue of The Economist (yes, the magazine) will be rolling around D.C. for two weeks next month, luring new subscribers with the promise of tasting a miraculous meat substitute.

The magazine is bringing its Feeding the Future campaign to D.C., after previous stints in New York City, London, and San Francisco. The truck will come to town on November 1, starting at CityCenterDC, and move around the District through November 12, all the while handing out samples of the Beyond Burger.

“Our goal is to open people’s eyes (and mouths) to the challenges we’ll face on our plates in the coming century,” Yanna Wilson-Fischer, the director of North America marketing and global experiential for The Economist, tells DCist over email. “This Meat Makers activation, and every other Economist experience, takes insight from our editorial content.”

The campaign riffs on a story from sister site 1843, which looks at a new round of meat substitutes that somehow manage to truly mimic beef’s distinctive taste and texture.

Several D.C. restaurants have started adding them to menus, and the Beyond Burger is sold at the Foggy Bottom and Tenleytown Whole Foods. Your humble correspondent has tried a competitor, the Impossible Burger, and found it to be eerily similar to a fast food beef patty (though can’t in good conscience recommend trying the version at Founding Farmers, which came with limp toppings and cold fries).

Wilson-Fischer says The Economist has “no preference” for either brand. “Our editorial content has made mention of both Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, acknowledging their efforts in driving the future of food forward,” she says. “Both companies are equally great, and similar to The Economist, advocates for positive change.”

Oh yeah, and people who stop by the food truck will also be offered the chance to subscribe to The Economist at an introductory rate of 12 weeks for $12.

“The campaign might be a bit unconventional, but the promise of free food served from branded food trucks should grab attention, and based on previous similar efforts has been proven to successfully drive subscriptions to the print version of The Economist,” industry outlet Marketing Dive writes.

Indeed it is not the first time The Economist has gotten creative with its advertising, tying its own reporting to mobile campaigns, free food, and subscription drives in what advertisers call “experiential activations.”

Over the spring, the magazine handed out free coffee at branded carts throughout NYC to highlight uses for coffee grounds (off a story about how they can be used to make biodiesel fuel). And a few years ago, Bostonians and Philadelphians were treated to free baked potatoes as part of a campaign to highlight the “hot potato” stories that the magazine covers.