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Veg Power and ITV have joined forces to launch an advertising campaign to inspire children to eat more vegetables.
Entitled ‘Eat Them To Defeat Them’, the push aims to engage with kids and parents in a new way, looking to reinvigorate how vegetables are viewed and consumed.
The campaign has been funded by an alliance of supermarkets and brands that have donated to the ‘Eat Them To Defeat Them’ initiative including Aldi, Asda, Birds Eye, Co-op, Iceland, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose. It also has the backing of celebrity chefs Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver.
UK advertising agency adam&eveDDB has created a 60-second advert that premiered on prime-time ITV on January 25.The ad and supporting material including posters, stickers and wall charts, positions kids as heroes as they help their parents save the world from being overrun by angry vegetables: they have to ‘Eat Them To Defeat Them’.
Veg Power was created as a result of the Peas Please campaign: a collaboration between the Food Foundation, Nourish Scotland, Food Sense Wales and the WWF that aims to make it easier for people to choose veg. It aims to ‘harness the advertising and marketing world and turn their skills to making engaging and powerful content aimed at changing our perception of vegetables, in order to encourage our kids to eat more. The Veg Power fund aims to use positive messages of vitality, vibrancy and wonderful taste to give vegetables a modern appeal’.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall said: “I’m really pleased and excited to be involved in Veg Power. Getting our kids to eat more vegetables is simply vital – and it’s never been more so. This campaign is brave, fun and engaging. It will inspire kids to enjoy the huge range of tastes, textures and colours that the brilliant world of veg has to offer. A diet that’s big on vegetables will be a massive win for our long term health. I’m hoping to see carrots and broccoli flying off the shelves!”
ITV ceo Carolyn McCall commented: “This campaign will reach millions of parents and children through our biggest and most popular shows and it is unlike anything that has gone before. We’re proud to use the power of TV to take a new, bold and brave approach to encouraging kids to eat more vegetables.”
Baroness Rosie Boycott, Chair of Veg Power and trustee of The Food Foundation, added: “We’re delighted that Veg Power has joined with ITV to launch our very first campaign. With the aim of using ‘advertising for good’ and engaging and entertaining kids, rather than using the well-worn health message, we can really shift the dial and hope to see long lasting behaviour change.
“Having all the major retailers will help us achieve huge reach and impact. It’s vital that we achieve change in both supply and demand if we are to see real transformation of our food system – and our work with both Peas Please and Veg Power is tackling both straight on.”
