The Food Foundation achieved an unprecedented success in the autumn when it announced it had secured £2 million worth of free primetime advertising space from ITV to promote its Veg Power campaign.
Running under the strapline ‘Eat Them to Defeat Them’, the cinematic, Hollywood-style advert is a tale of an army of grotesque, evil vegetables who threaten to take over the world. Parodying some of the great action and horror movies, kids are urged to help defeat the vegetable invaders by eating them.
Here’s what we know:
The Advert
The Veg Power ad has been devised by advertising agency adam&eveDBB, creating a 60-second film that casts children as the heroes in a movie scenario with a horde of vegetables emerging from the underground to take over the world. Kids hit back against the threat as they chomp through a whole host of veg and “eat them to defeat them”.
The Campaign
The ad launches on ITV at 7.45pm on 25 January during Coronation Street. It will then go out during News at Ten, The Voice and Dancing on Ice over the weekend. Over a 12-week period it will air across the ITV network during primetime entertainment, drama and daytime slots. The ad will also be plugged by ITV talent including the coaches of The Voice.
Supporters
The costs of the production and the wider campaign have been covered by donations from 12 major supermarkets and brands. All of them have donated £50,000 each and will be supporting the campaign in store, digitally and across their social media networks. The supporters are: Aldi, Asda, Birds Eye, Co-op, Iceland, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose.
Veg of the Week
This is the primary engagement and activation campaign to support and amplify the TV message. Each week for ten weeks a different vegetable will be featured, with a range of activity over the course of the seven days.
Celebrities: The week starts on a Monday with a high-profile celebrity sending out a rallying cry for that week’s veg.
Influencers: These will amplify that message. The Food Foundation’s network includes chefs, food writers and bloggers, food campaigners, public health organisations, the horticulture industry, school and community-based food programmes, and others who share a passion for the project.
Social: Kids and their families will create and share fun content using the campaign hashtag on social media. This might be ‘wonky veg monsters’ or ideas about eating Veg of the Week.
Retail: Supermarkets are being asked to promote Veg of the Week in store to help boost the campaign and give it point-of-sale impact.
Posters: There is a set of ten posters to go alongside Veg of the Week, as well as a hero poster. These will appear across transport networks, as well as in schools, community centres etc. around the country.
Recipes: Recipe creators on TV and in the press, as well as bloggers and retailers, will be asked to create simple, tasty and convenient recipes for that week’s veg.
The Wider Campaign
Schools: The campaign is also being supported by school caterers and local authorities. Across the country thousands of schools will be distributing Eat Them to Defeat Them wall charts, stickers and posters. Many schools will also be featuring Veg of the Week on menus.
Cinema: The ad will appear in cinemas at half term across the country.
Community Events: There are many community events going on across the country to help promote the campaign.
Oher Support: The Beano will be running the print ad and pull-out material in the comic and a dedicated online hub will host content including quizzes, games and recipes.
Monitoring and Evaluation: The campaign will be fully evaluated and is being supported by Guy’s & St Thomas’s Charity. Data will be provided by the retailers as well as Kantar, and organisers will be looking at campaign awareness, veg sales and consumption. Oxford and Cambridge academics are monitoring the evaluation and will be publishing a paper on the results later in the year.
