to think no child eats any more veg because of the "Eat Them to Defeat Them" ads?

[Nimbostratus100]

does anyone have or know any children inspired to eat vegetables by making them out to be evil enemies?

I don't. I wouldn't say that I know children who have stopped eating veg because of these ads, but I certainly know children utterly bewildered and confused by them and questioning their veg eating.

I cant even make out who is behind this? Is it supermarkets? Or tv companies? I hope it isn't taxpayers!

I just find it weird

It is to counteract the loads of adverts for highly processed food.

but why make them out to be evil enemies?

My DD hates that add, she thinks it's stupid and patronising. It is annoying but the message is important. Won't get her eating any vegetables other than her staple peas and carrots though.

I agree OP.

The ads convey naff all positive about eating veg.

You basically need something pop-eye esque - the veg giving you superpowers (exaggerated forms of real health benefits).

The ads are made by Veg Power, a not for profit funded by loads of brands including supermarkets, food companies and Sky. The campaign is actually very successful I gather (I know people who have worked on it).

I just think most kids would think it was unbelievably lame

Yup I agree. I always think this is an odd advert. DD is veggie - (loves animals as if they are people) so anthropomorphising veg (even if they are 'evil') is really messing with her head.

So they have personalities - in which case, should I eat them? Or they are 'evil' - so I have to kill them?!

Dunno, it is a head-scratcher for sure.

I always think this too OP. Why portray veg as evil 🤔

Why not portray them as friendly and delicious and wanting to be chosen and eaten or something

And yet it's a long-running campaign, so must have been considered a success in some way?

Wouldn't it be better to have veg as superheroes helping the body fight illnesses?

successful by what measure?

Veg Power is actually quite a nice concept. They should have stopped there. Instead, they are saying in the advert you have to take the Veg Power away - by defeating it?

I was also wondering this - how are they measuring the campaigns success? Is anyone actually monitoring the amount of Veg children are eating - in relation to this campaign??

I've always been totally bewildered by the add and I can't see how it's encouraging kids to eat more veg - but I'm not in marketing so what do I know?? LOL

I’ve not seen any adverts like this 😂 my 3 year old absolutely loves veg. She’s rather have a plate of veg for dinner than anything else sometimes.. she did go through a ‘I don’t like broccoli’ phase which meant anything green was a no.. but she would still eat carrots and cauliflower then, she back to eating anything aslong as it doesn’t have sauce now.

sauce is the devil in our house. I thought kids loved ketchup 😂

It's such a stupid advert. If something is evil and needs to be defeated, you don't eat it. It doesn't make any sense. Plus the actors on the advert are really annoying!

DS has always just laughed at them tbh, absolutely zero impact on his eating habits. He eats veg because I cook the veg he enjoys in ways that he likes. If he didn't like the taste then no advert would make a difference!

They claim a sustained shift in shopping behaviour. I'm not sure I completely buy their econometric analysis simply because they haven't given me a plausible mechanism by which child awareness of the campaign results in changes in adult purchases from specific supermarkets. There has to be a well supported behavioural explanation of the behaviour change (a mechanistic explanation) to properly support the idea that the campaign (alone) explained this change.

Here's the rather glossy summary of what they claim for anyone who wants to read it:

Eat-Them-to-Defeat-Them-Retail-Sales-Report-2019-2021.pdf (vegpower.org.uk)

I should add, from the shopping data we also don't know a) whether purchased veg were eaten or thrown away and b) who ate them. Unless I've missed something!

just skimmed that report, and I agree it is very very lacking. So veg sales up 2.something percent?

Why do people buy veg?

Because it is there, my shopping habits over the last few years have been don't decide what to buy until you get there and see what is on the shelves. So where is the evidence that
Because it is cheap, the cheapest fill up you can get these days is carrots, really.

Where is the link between buying veg and this campaign?
none, as far as I can see

Who eats the veg that is bought? Are there even any children in the households buying veg?

How has the population changed in that time? grown? shrunk?

Are these veg even being eaten at all?

I dont see any basis for the claim that this campaign is "successful"

YANBU, it's from the 'stupid and trite' school of kids TV that makes them out to be imbeciles.

My DC think the adverts are naff now but a few years ago they had an ‘eat them to defeat them’ game thing sent home from school and that encouraged them to expand their vegetable repertoire a bit (they wanted to win so they tried 3/4 previously hated veg to experiment and 2 became regular parts of their diets.

it needs a parent to provide a good range of nicely cooked veg + encouragement etc… but nothing would work on its own and it’s fairly inoffensive.

Myself and DD, when she was 3, were in a supermarket once and a older man kept laughing at us.

I asked him what was funny, and he said it was because she was asking consistently and loudly for fruit rather than sweets or chocolate.

Even now 18 months later if we go to the supermarket and asks for sweets/chocolate she also demands that we buy fruit and veg she likes e.g. tomatoes, carrots, bananas, apples.

You'd then get complaints that it was marginalising children with chronic illnesses or disabilities.

I keep seeing these adverts after 9pm (sometimes at 1am). Any child that would be excited at defeating vegetables should have been in bed before then, so who is it targeting at that time?

Its a stupid, ill thought out advert, and I have no idea how they would know its a success. Surely it can't be down to more veg being consumed considering there's a CoL crisis so even single adults are buying more, plus many animals are being fed vegetables instead of corn etc. Saw a programme about a farmer feeding his herd a ton of swede as it was cheaper than cattle feed...does that tonnage of swede get added to the success veg stats?

My niece's DC refused to eat them after seeing that ad because they way he saw it, if he ate "evil" then he would become "evil". I think this was, in part, due to being told "if you eat healthy foods, it makes you healthy", so "eating evil makes you evil" by a 6 year old's logic.

It would be better to have a campaign focused on showing cheap, tasty veg-based meals that children might enjoy, or subtle ways to introduce them to children who are not keen, such as adding them to mashed potatoes.