Carrot Junk
By Bella Acton, 8/09/2010
Love this example by a collaboration of 50 carrot farmers (led by Bolthouse Farms) and Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Unsurprising, carrot farmers want us all to eat more carrots. Not only would their wallets be better for it, but our waists would be too. Rather than try a traditional ‘carrots are good for you – check the vitamin A content’ type of push, they decided to borrow from a category that we cant seem to resist – chips, crisps and junk food. The campaign ‘eat them like junk’ is clearly targeted at kids and aims to get them eating carrots like they would chips. On top of this, they’re being sold in vending machines. How very crisp-like.
I love the face-lift and energy this brings to the world of vegetables. In conjunction with the junk food ban in schools, I think this could go a long way in helping kids re-appraise healthy food. This concept certainly is a bold move that will make us all take notice of the humble carrot again. Ultimately, however, taste is king. And carrots will never be Doritos. Will be interesting to see if kids go with it, or feel so duped by the vegetable-in-disguise that they want the Doritos even more! People with kids, let me know how it goes…
Mine only eat them when they get to pull them out of the ground. But if these little beauties were lined up next to the cash till with all the other junk i’m sure they’d go for them… at least once. Will keep a look out.
For me this is a classic example of ‘Image’ vs. ‘Identity’. In this case, the carrot farmers are trying to put a new image on Carrots with total disregard to their true identity — they ARE a healthy vegetable…not an indulgent snack food. I think people might buy it once for the novelty, but once they see their kids would rather eat a fried potato (a.k.a. French Fry or Potato Chip), I think they’ll not come back and buy them again. Perfect example for me of why the Brand’s Identity and ‘product rock’ need to be in sync.
Because you like to question conventional thinking and look at things in a new way I think you’ll appreciate this:
http://www.geekologie.com/2010/09/child_playing_optical_illusion.php
[...] fish-poll: Is this new campaign for Baby Carrots (that bella blogged about over here) (a) Breakthrough Challenger Behaviour or (b) Advertising gone [...]