Veg Power Beats Junk Food Marketers
at Their Own Game
Originally printed in a recent issue of Produce Business.
“Vegetables are disgusting!”
Kids forever have dodged eating vegetables.
Resorting to convoluted measures, parents cajole, bribe and slyly disguise them, often to no avail.
The industry, despite valiant efforts, has struggled to move the needle on overall produce consumption, let alone conquer most children’s downright disdain for vegetables.
Veg Power, the nonprofit alliance created to increase vegetable consumption, completely upends decades of produce marketing paradigms, impishly doubling down to make vegetables evil foes. (No worries, kids are in on the ruse.)
But if you talk to children about their food choices,
the perception of fun is the primary driver.
That’s why McDonald’s is so successful.
Children have amazing imaginations, and can find fantasy inside the food, Parker says. “We love kids fooling around with real veg in its pure natural form. They can pick up broccoli and say it is a broccoli monster, or it’s a broccoli tree or it’s just a little broccoli floret toy, it’s fun and then they eat it, crunchy, tasty and super fresh, instead of processed food.”
“This isn’t about cooking techniques. This is about breaking down all those barriers, and creating this environment of fun and encouragement.”
STORIED EMOTIONS
Whilst most TV advertising looks like it is selling food, it actually sells a state of mind. If you’ve seen advertisements for Coca-Cola or Snickers or any of these types of products, they don’t expect you to say, “I must have it now, and go immediately to the supermarket and buy one.” They create a emotional feeling with a product that refreshes your emotions to happen later when you are in a s 24/7 store, service station or supermaket
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