Most kids might have broken up for the term – possibly even the year – but the ad industry is trying to ensure that the next few months playing video games with their mates does not encourage them to go down that career path, with a new campaign designed to show youngsters just how thrilling a career in advertising can be.
A new programme, devised by Media Smart, sees the launch of a creative resource based on ITV and Veg Power’s Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign. It takes students behind the scenes at Adam & Eve DDB to show how the ad was created, while encouraging them to consider a career in advertising.
The resource is backed by funding and media inventory support from 30 organisations across the industry, including national broadcasters ITV, Channel 4 and Sky.
Media Smart aims to raise young people’s interest in creative careers by challenging them to design an entertaining, persuasive public health campaign that encourages their teenage peers to eat more veg.
Following a brief set by NHS Doctor and television presenter Dr Ranj Singh, students are guided through the steps an agency would follow, focusing on what motivates and interests their target audience. They then use this insight to develop an idea for an ad that stands out, with students pitching against teams of their fellow classmates to come up with the winning creative concept.
The resource pack includes interviews with the team that created the original Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign, whose mission was to encourage primary age children to eat more vegetables.
Media Smart insists the new resource is timely in that students will get a close look at how to communicate to their teenage peers about personal health and well-being.
As we enter into a period where distance learning and home schooling will become the norm, Media Smart – as an online resource – claims it is also well placed to support parents, teachers and pupils to keep learning during this important time.
Eat Them To Defeat Them first launched in January 2019 and is claimed to have led to over 650,000 children eating more vegetables and 18 million more units of vegetables being sold – enough for an extra portion of vegetables on every family dinner table in the UK for each week of the campaign. It is being rerun this month.
Media Smart director Rachel Barber-Mack said: “We are huge fans of the Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign. It is having a real impact with primary school age children and we wanted to help extend its reach to the teenage audience. I cannot wait to see the public health campaign ideas that the young people come up with.
“With further industry backing, we could even turn one of the ideas into a real advert. We hope our new educational resource, which lends itself to remote teaching or home schooling, will both inspire young people into creative careers as well as to eat more vegetables.”
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