Now Veggies are as Cool as Cheetos

A Stanford University study had kids taste food in McDonald packaging and unmarked packaging and asked which they preferred. The kids preferred the McDonald packaged food not realizing that they went for it because they were conditioned to believe "it must taste good."

You can be negative about the effects of advertising and packaging, but I think if you apply the lesson learned from the study noted above, you'll find that you can use this information positively.

After being inspired by the Stanford University study on McDonald's packaging effect on kids, I came up with an idea to get kids to eat their veggies as enthusiastically as 'snack'. If zip-seal bags would be pre-printed with cool graphics like those on national brand snack packaging (which kids love), then they might be more inclined to take, display and eat their healthy snacks in school with zest.

Well, Mobi has already created this product! They make a great array of appealing sandwich bags, pre-printed with various designs that can even give cut-up celery sticks a zap of show-off cool factor.

Mobi's bags would be perfect for influencing kids to see healthy snacks as the 'cool thing'.

As an added bonus, these bags are environmentally friendly. The materials used to make them are recycled and recyclable. Furthermore in 2008 the company plans to use strictly biodegradable films in their products.

In addition to the environment, they are also passionate about helping endangered species and global aid.

(sources: Mobi, Fancy Food & CNN)

Comments

[John]

Thats nice and all..

But since when are Peachies(or whatever they are called in your area) considered fruit?

Ha, they are peach flavored sugar covered gummi worms basically.

[123]

It appears the root problem is the conditioning of kids to prefer branded food, rather than their preference for it. Parents should investigate their own behaviors that are causing their kids to think that way. It's not just kids - this kind of thinking causes adults to believe designer drugs work better than generic.

However, doing ANYTHING to get kids to eat their vegetables is a great thing. Awesome to see this kind of creative thinking.

Didn't want to spin this story into a negative post, but I encourage people to address the problems, rather than the symptoms.

[hi]

I LOVE THISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[Stella]

I don't think its so much the fact that we're conditioned to prefer "branded" foods. It's all about presentation, you're more likely to prefer something that looks appealing (bright grapics for example)than something bland.

[Jaleh Ruhe]

how's about no packaging and learning as parents that FOOD ISN'T THAT SPECIAL, it has no status, it's just something we do in order to keep doing other stuff, the important stuff - parents learn to eat simply and quietly, their kids will learn the same... what is america's obsession with packaging and food and making fusses? such a nation of spoiled people and their kids.

[jamie]

Jaleh, I disagree. Food is VERY important, and in fact the act of eating is one of the central social interactions every person is a part of. Across the world, eating "simply and quietly" is not what anyone would call traditional. In fact it is our disassociation with food that has led us to this problem in the first place. Traditionally, eating has always been a time of thanks and celebration, of conversing and family gathering. Eating good food with others is the key, whether it is boisterous or calm, simple or fancy.

[Dino]

It's not an issue of just kids, or just US Americans, or any one group. It's a natural conclusion: make something attractive and flashy, and people will naturally prefer it to something bland and boring looking. Seriously, people, it's rather insulting to all these groups to make it seem like they should be singled out for preferring a pleasant presentation (alliteration = my friend) over a plain one. We're highly visual creatures, with an entire lobe of the brain (occipital lobe) devoted to the sense of sight.

Frankly, the study is like funding a study and saying "we found that cookies are tasty." Um. Duh? HOWEVER, good on them for /using/ that study in a positive way. Getting people to eat their veggies is definitely a step in the right direction.

[Nabila]

It's not about the colorful presentation - it's about prepackaging! Knowing that the same carrots my mom gives me everyday are in a new and colorful bag will not prompt me to eat them. However, opening my lunch box to find prepackaged, made for kids carrots will make me think that maybe these carrots will be good!