BHF takes healthy eating message to cities and schools

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 30-Nov-05, 07:00

LONDON - The British Heart Foundation is using field marketing and educational packs to get its healthy eating message closer to children.

The "Food4Thought" campaign, which began above the line earlier this month, is designed to warn children aged 11 to 12 years old about the danger of eating too much unhealthy food and stave off the future threat of heart disease.

A total of 590,000 action packs will be distributed, targeting children in and out of school. They contain a fun magazine called Dump the Junk, posters of England cricketer Andrew Flintoff and pop band Girls Aloud, collectible cards, stickers and a scratchcard competition.

The BHF is sending 350,000 packs to secondary schools along with 5,000 teacher resource packs, resembling pizza boxes, designed to help classroom discussions of food issues.

The remaining action packs will be handed out at weekends from mock fast-food carts in 12 cities including London, Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham by field marketing and events agency The Works London.

Betty McBride, BHF director of policy and communications, said: "The Food4Thought Roadshow is all about grabbing the attention of children and talking to them in a colourful and engaging way."

Other elements of the integrated campaign are designed to get children to investigate BHF's campaign microsite. Media agency MG OMD secured ad space on ITV's CiTV home page and a tie-up with website Swapitshop, making sports equipment available for children to spend their Swapit points on.

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