Too often, primetime TV is the preserve of unhealthy snacks and treats. As the primary industry sponsor of the innovative Eat Them To Defeat Them television campaign in the UK, Dole is taking on the fight to increase consumption of fruit and veg into consumers living rooms.
Launched on primetime television on Saturday, February 11th and returning for its fifth consecutive year, the multi-award winning initiative will run until April 8th. Taking an irreverent, fun approach to promoting vegetables to kids, this year’s campaign aims to give parents confidence that the vegetables they buy for their families will not end up in the bin.
More than half the parents in schools participating in Eat Them to Defeat Them say their children eat more vegetables as a direct result of the campaign. Since it launched in 2019, the campaign has directly generated an additional £132m in vegetables sales, equivalent to 1.4bn children’s veg portions. The campaign was recognised last year with the prestigious Institute of Practitioners in Advertising President's Award for Behaviour Change.
The 2023 Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign is an alliance between ITV, Channel 4 and Sky Media who have collectively contributed over £15m of advertising to this campaign since it began. Alongside Dole plc it is supported by major supermarket brands Aldi, Co-op, Lidl, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose.
The schools’ programme which accompanies the television campaign involving 700,000 kids across the UK will follow soon after- launching on Monday 20th February and running until 8th April. This year it will feature a new theme ‘Taking Over The World’ involving 10 meal themes and recommended recipes for each. Each meal theme creates a fun narrative for the children, turning popular school fare such as roasts, cottage pie and pasta bake into mini-adventures. As in previous years, the kids become the heroes as they defeat the vegetables by eating them.
In addition to the recipes, catering teams will be provided with displays and stickers, designed to create events to promote the uptake of school meals and the veg within them. Teaching staff will also receive curriculum-compliant lesson plans to create excitement about the meal themes and support classroom learning about food, culture and geography.
Vincent Dolan, VP for Marketing & Sustainability says of the initiative:
“At Dole, we’re huge fans of the Eat Them To Defeat Them Campaign. Engaging children as it does in a novel, relevant and contemporary way, its message and its approach is one very much in keeping with our own commitment to inspire, educate and empower consumers to embrace a healthier diet. Far removed from conventional educational campaigns, the combination of primetime advertising and in-school activities has proven to be enormously successful over past campaigns and so in Dole we’re incredibly proud to fly the flag for our sector in supporting this worthwhile initiative”.
Campaign Website and Social
https://eatthemtodefeatthem.com
Twitter: @VegPowerUK