Thursday, December 16, 2010

Yes, advertising can sell broccoli!

12/16/10

In an effort to prove that television advertising does indeed work, The Television Bureau of Canada has proven our thesis that advertising can be used to increase consumption of healthy foods. Specifically, three spots they created and ran on television led to an 8% increase in broccoli sales. That’s 188,574 pounds. (Corr, 2010)

Here are the spots that did the trick if you want to check them out. I think we can all agree that they are not award winners. Yet, they worked. So perhaps they should be.

http://eater.com/archives/2010/10/01/broccoli-commercials-an-advertising-experiment-boost-sales-8.php

Let’s hope the folks in the U.S. healthcare sphere have taken note and are budgeting for their own future efforts. Obesity shortens life spans and increases healthcare costs. It’s time we used all the tools we have to fight this important battle. Don’t you agree?

Corr, A. (2010, December 13) Can TV Ads Really Sell Anything? Ask Broccoli. mediapost.com. Retrieved December 16, 2010, from
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=141233

3 comments:

leslie kirchhoff said...

interesting. the commercials are corny and not that great, but i guess they do their job and get the point across. i think it definitely is important, especially with all the commercials there are for fast food. there needs to be a balance.

Alex Costa said...

haha well the commercials were a little lame! but now i will eat broccoli at christmas dinner so I guess they worked. I absolutely think that providing healthy commercials would help with obesity. I know that when I watch television and a commercial for pizza or chinese comes on, I start craving it even though I wouldn't have thought of it initially. I think that the reverse could work for healthy foods. Especially if the healthy foods were promoted in a way that did not make them seem like diet foods but simply enjoyable and delicious. Special K bars never look appealing to me because the ads stress me out and make me feel like I need to lose weight. That broccoli one just made me interested in eating it because it will make me stronger and happier.

Yunjoo Kim said...

I think these commercials are funny but also informational because the man keeps talking about broccoli's vitamin. That makes me want to eat broccoli and I feel like I want them spontaneously because those lighthearted ads doesn't seem to force me to eat broccoli. There is no way to have pressure and moreover resistance. I have heard that TV commercial are becoming less influential recently, but according to this result, it still works! I think every broccoli seller in Canada must have thank to the ads. Lucky ones!