Growers could benefit from changing habits with around 80% of children not eating enough vegetables.
Getting children excited about eating vegetables through a new campaign can provide a boost for British growers by changing the nation’s eating habits.
ITV and VegPower have launched the Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign, looking to get children eating more vegetables by turning it into a game, with support from the major UK retailers.
The campaign includes television and social media advertisements which shows vegetables trying to take over the world saying the only way to defeat them, is to eat them.
Industry supporters of the campaign include AHDB, the British Growers Association and the NFU.
Nicola Dodd, responsible for AHDB’s involvement in the campaign, said they had decided to invest campaign when they were crowd funding as they were looking for ways to promote the wide range of horticultural produce.
She said it was encouraging to see ITV were getting behind promoting the campaign and people were talking about it on their shows, alongside events going ahead in supermarkets.
“For the money we put in it is amplified, it is good value for money,” she said.
80 per cent of children were not eating enough vegetables, with 95 per cent of teenagers not eating enough.
Ms Dodd said it was a different approach which would grab children’s attention, rather than preaching at them.
“We were trying to get them involved and it is more of a story.”
She said while the advert did not specifically promote eating British or seasonal vegetables, it was about building a lifelong habit.
“We want to people to choose British. But we want to get people eating them in the first place, the retailers are getting involved as well.
“Once that barrier is down it is a whole year round thing.”