Can Junk Food-Style Marketing Get Kids to Snack Healthier?

Brightly colored packaging and cartoon characters are usually a sign of the sugary, trans fat-containing junk foods you’d want to keep your kids away from. But if one carrot company has their way, that’s soon going to change.

Bolthouse Farms is stealing all of those highly effective marketing tricks used by junk food companies to hook kids on their foods and putting them to good use by creating healthy snacks that kids will see and beg their parents to buy. Bolthouse, which originally focused on healthful smoothies not specifically targeted towards kids, has rolled out new displays in select grocery stores around the country that aim to engage children. The brand will now be selling “veggie snackers” (a pack of carrots and potato chip-style seasoning that you shake before you open), pureed fruit in tubes (Go-Gurt-style), and unsweetened fruit smoothies wrapped in colorful, attention-grabbing packaging.

This isn't Bolthouse’s first attempt to market healthier eating to kids. They joined an initiative last year that allows produce purveyors to use Sesame Street characters in their marketing, royalty-free.

"I think every little bit helps," Todd Putnam, Bolthouse Farm’s CCO, explained to Fast Company. "We are not winning the war when it comes to fruit and vegetable consumption. The data shows that fruit and vegetable consumption is down 7% in the U.S. over the last 10 years. We're not doing well on that ledger."

Pullman’s observations are spot-on — though Americans have been, in general, eating significantly better over the last couple of years, we’re still a far way from reaching ideal dietary standards. Easily accessible and affordable produce is a huge problem when it comes to feeding families healthily, especially among the lower income families of America. And it’s not just the difficulties in actually buying good food, getting the family together for a nutritious meal that’s enjoyed by all puts a huge burden on family leaders, specifically women.

If marketing strategies like Bolthouse’s are successful, it could make all the difference in helping to curb American obesity. Hopefully their packaging is loud enough to drown out the siren song of that bright bag of Cheetos that’s calling to you and your kids.

[Pic via screenshot - Bolthouse Farms]