Promoting Healthy Eating

http://youtu.be/LTsKh0YVKJY

In January of 2011, the USDA revamped their healthy eating campaign to include the "myplate" guide, a new demonstration of a nutritious balanced diet targeted at the average American. While the concept is a great idea, incorporating elements of portion control and nutrient balance, this intro video is just plain sad. While it is beyond obvious that the diet of any average North-American citizen could use some help, these  healthy eating campaigns are far from inspiring or effective. 

In this video specifically, the music is dated and the kids speaking do not seem to be terribly interested in what they are talking about. While its true that most kids aren't authorities on vitamins and nutrients that are plentiful in produce and grains, the ad could be much more relatable to kids, showing foods that they might actually like rather than raisin bran. There are healthy foods that aren't as boring looking, like fresh fruits and veggies, or chocolate milk. If the video associates healthy food with bland tasting food, the message kids will ultimately take away from the video is that healthy eating just plain sucks.

While the USDA might not have the same budget that Coke or McDonalds does to make high quality advertisements, I think that there are quite a few simple things that they can do to change their video campaigns to make them much more effective and memorable. If the authorities are trying to push healthy eating in society, they are going to need to put more of a priority on actually making it appealing and popular.