Campaign group Veg Power is collaborating with ITV for its Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign for the fifth year running, in a bid to to get the nation’s kids eating their greens.
This year’s initiative from the not-for-profit company founded by chef Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, Sir John Hegarty and Baroness Boycott focuses on the cost of living crisis.
Research commissioned by the group and carried out by YouGov last month showed that over Christmas 20% of families said they had cut back on vegetables to reduce spending. Now, the Veg Power team is aiming to combat this by supporting families to continue eating vegetables.
“Parents tell us they are more concerned than ever about their finances and so rejected vegetables really worry them – they simply cannot afford to risk them going to waste,” said Veg Power chief executive Dan Parker.
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The project, backed by major supermarkets including Aldi, Tesco, Co-Op and Lidl, has been developed pro bono by adam&eve DDB. It hit the screens earlier this week and will be followed by a schools programme that will run until 8 April.
The theme of this year’s school outreach initiative is ‘Taking over the world’ and will feature recipes, fun stickers and dedicated lessons that help children to learn about food and culture from across the globe.
Since 2018 the collaborative campaign has generated an additional £1.4 billion worth of vegetable sales at retail. Last year the drive won the prestigious Institute of Practitioners President’s Prize for Behavioural Change at the Effectiveness Awards.
This year it includes pro bono contributions from big names like Yahoo and Spotify as well as ad agency JC Deceux and children’s newspaper First News.
“Each year Eat Them to Defeat Them has been proven again and again to get children not just eating vegetables but getting excited about them too. And that’s never been more important. We’re delighted to continue ITV and Veg Power’s partnership through this campaign,” said director of social purpose at ITV, Susie Braun.
