It’s a classic food industry marketing ploy: first reinforce parents’ belief that all kids are hardwired to refuse healthy foods like fruits and vegetables, then offer your company’s [sugary “toddler drink”/ frozen “kid food” meals/ boxed mac-n-cheese/ shredded cheese / brownie snack bar / etc. etc. etc.] as the “solution” to children’s picky eating.
It’s a clever gimmick I discuss in some detail in Chapter 3 of Kid Food, but I really can’t think of a better example than a new fried chicken nugget launched yesterday by Perdue Foods:
It’s called Chicken Plus and the product’s entire marketing strategy is clearly meant to both stoke and exploit parents’ concerns about picky eating—starting with a promotional contest to find “America’s Pickiest Eater.”
According to the company’s press release, the lucky winner will receive a year’s supply of the fried nuggets, while his or her school will get an additional ton (OMG, did they say a ton?) to be served to their peers in school meals. Awesome.
I should be clear: I actually have no problem with companies boosting their products’ nutritional profile with healthful ingredients like cauliflower and chickpeas (the “plus” in Perdue’s new nugget). It seems unlikely that we Americans will ever forgo the convenience and palatability of processed foods, so whatever the industry can do to make its products healthier, I’m all for it.
But child feeding experts agree that a heavy reliance on these hyerpalatable, highly processed products will only exacerbate kids’ resistance to the whole, healthy food they really need; feeding your toddler starchy puffs with a smidge of spinach creates a love of starchy puffs, not spinach. Yet when these never-rejected foods are overtly marketed to parents as a “nutritional insurance policy” for their picky children, parents both feel better about their kids’ continued avoidance of vegetables and have an incentive to serve these products more often.
And by the way, if a parent is relying on Chicken Plus to cross “veggies” off their child’s dietary check list, apparently one serving doesn’t even cut it:
Thanks to pediatric feeding specialist Melanie Potock for sharing Perdue’s press release with me yesterday, which I might have otherwise missed.
On a related note, Melanie and I had a great conversation last night about restaurant children’s menus and other “kid food” topics during my very first Facebook Live. I was a little nervous at first, but Melanie made the whole experience such a pleasure. Our chat is archived on The Lunch Tray‘s Facebook page and on Melanie’s My Munchbug Facebook page, and I hope you’ll take the time to watch!
- “A blueprint for how to raise healthy eaters in a fast-food culture”—New York Times
- “One of the Best Books of 2019 (So Far)” — Real Simple
- “Everyone who has children should read Kid Food. And everyone who doesn’t should read it, too.” — Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation.
Look for my new book, Kid Food: The Challenge of Feeding Children in a Highly Processed World. For more information, visit bettinasiegel.com.
bw1 says
“It seems unlikely that we Americans will ever forgo the convenience and palatability of processed foods, so whatever the industry can do to make its products healthier, I’m all for it.”
That seems awfully hypocritical in the wake of your rhetorical history.
Every time I watch the Kraft win-win commercials I draw the same conclusion – our society is doomed because we allow people stupid enough to fall for such crap to breed. The last thing we need is banning this sort of manipulation, because stupidity should hurt. Otherwise there’s no incentive not to be stupid.
WHENEVER I see a video/photo montage accompanied by emotionally compelling music, whether it’s in a commercial, or in a corporate/political/religious meeting/event, the way my parents raised me creates the instant response of thinking “someone is trying to push my buttons. Why? What about their message is so detrimental that they feel the need to hide it within this wrapper of insidious emotional fluffery?”
If parents aren’t willing to teach their kids such intellectual skepticism, c’est la vie. Those commercials provide the parents who are with valuable illustrations of the concept.
The answer to the Kraft commercials, the implementation of which I’d gladly contribute to support, would be a commercial where the kid is told he’s going to eat the salmon or be punished (not particular as to the method, but it has to be something the kid finds unpleasant) and then show him later in life being more successful than the kid fed the mac’n’cheese because he learned self control.
“I hope you’ll take the time to watch!”
Love to, but I don’t do Facebook. Please consider distribution channels that don’t require the surrender of personal privacy to access your content.