Rebranding Carrots as Junk Food

A group of early 50 carrot farmers, headed by Bolthouse Farms, have teamed up with Crispin Porter + Bogusky to rebrand baby carrots and advertise them in a way that mimics snack brands like Doritos. The campaign is designed to encourage kids to choose carrots over other unhealthy snack foods, and is currently being tested in cooled vending machines at schools. What do you think of this campaign? Share your thoughts below!

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Comments

[David Millar]

I love the idea. The branding is a great way to reach a different market in the first place, but where the idea really works for me is the cooled vending machines. The convenience of a vending machine usually trumps healthy snack choices, but having a healthy choice in a quick vending machine form negates the excuses.

[Steve]

I think this is great... but then again... I love carrots.

[Ep]

I think it's sad we have to trick kids in to eating healthy. However... whatever works! Ironically, I just got my boy a bowl of carrots and sat down to find this post. He asked me for them - no tricking necessary.

[fcp]

If the bag doesn't have a window, I'd be afraid to get carrots that have been in a vending machine for I don't know how long. Even if it is cooled, carrots still get slimy in my refrigerator.

[Inkquartz]

Come on, who are we trying to kid here. If they want to eat carrots or not doesn't matter on how you dress it. It's a lost cause if you're dressing it up, it's CARROTS at the end of the day. Save your money on spending millions on the strategy, design and plastic wastes. Put your ideas to better use Bolthouse Farms.

[Yael Miller]

I can't believe this! I'm so glad! I've been saying for ages why don't carrot sticks and other snackable veggies come in those crinkly potato chip-type snack bags? If they are packaged like 'junk food' kids will be easily influenced to eat the healthier stuff - how your snack looks makes a big impact on if a kid is willing to bring a 'nerdy snack' like veggies to school or not (I know, I have kids).

I even wrote about it in 2007 saying if veggies were packed in fun bags kids would be more likely to eat them and flaunt them. Here's a reference to the mention (where I point out an article of a study done by Stanford University about the effects of packaging on food - healthy or not): http://reubenmiller.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/10/now-veggies-are.html

Prepackaged veggies would be even more awesome than the idea noted above in the referenced article. I can't wait to see this hit store shelves - I'm definitely a customer! Bolthouse Farms and Crispin Porter + Bogusky - way to go! Please don't leave this in cafeterias only for too long. Let's get them into supermarkets, too.

[Yael Miller]

I disagree, @Ep. I don't think it's sad - humans are hardwired to respond to visual stimuli. It's just plain natural.

One of my kids loves veggies, but the other one is pickier. So, this would work for a kid who's picky about veggies. Also, kids like to show off that they have a cool snack when they're among friends (I don't know what specific age groups it extends to) so the way the bag looks and 'sounds' (crinkly bag) will make the kid feel good about him/herself.

[Jacob Halton]

wow, this would make a really interesting experiment to see if people would buy this out of habit like they do potato chips. I think the left and right packages look too "nice" to be considered junk food by an average consumer. They look like what junk food tries to do to make it's product seem healthy, whereas the center product would fit in perfectly with doritos or funyuns or any of that other crap that we eat when we're hungry and don't feel like leaving the office and there's no choice but salt or sugar in the vending machine.

I have a feeling if the center bag was priced at 50c and put next to all the other crappy chips, it might sell the same as doritos......but I could be completely wrong, I really really want to see how sales trends would work between these and actual junk food


good job!

[Daniel]

I'd like to see this campaign work, but I think that they are erring greatly in repeatedly announcing that these are an alternative to junk food. If you want to turn most kids — and a good many adults — off fruits, carrots, &c, then yammer about them being “nature's candy” or somesuch. If you want people to actually consume them, then make them proximate and price them competitively.

[Dennis]

Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

[Stephen S. Cameron]

Branding finally comes to the produce aisle. But don't expect it to last.

The farmers won't hassle with it unless there is a significant return on investment, and that won't happen unless the price point changes dramatically and that won't happen because consumers ultimately understand the price of produce and are unwilling to pay more for less.

I don't think that branding is wrong for produce, I think it's exactly right. But produce doesn't need branded packaging like potato chips, it simply needs solidly visible grower brands (not product brands) that consumers can know and trust.

There's lots of room to stand shoulder to shoulder with Sunsweet, Sun-Maid, Calavo, Christopher Ranch, etc., without resorting to gimmickry.

[Aline]

Is there any way to purchase these now, other than by being at the schools where they are being tested?

[audyyy]

I'd expect one of these baby carrots to taste like extreme nacho cheese.

[Janice]

You have to figure that anything that gets kids to eat more carrots is a good thing, but it is a shame that they have to be dressed up (in wasteful packaging) to have any appeal. We need to give kids a good grounding in food knowledge and nutrition. We do it for substance abuse, yet we let them put all kinds of edible crap in their bodies.
here's a post about the need to return to home ec classes:
http://gigabiting.com/?p=4738

[allen]

Nice work CP(minus)B, now if they can just make them taste like nacho cheese, or cool ranch these might actually work.

[Chris Wojcicki]

This is absolutely amazing. I wish that I could have seen something like this as a kid. I would have almost immediately gobbled up all the carrots I could find with this packaging. Then again I am a vegetarian. Nonetheless the packaging is amazing and I could very easily see how this would boost sales with carrots and any other fruit or veggie with this packaging approach.

Now if only we can do this with cereal?

[Gabrielle]

I think it's a fantastic idea. I agree that it is sad that kids need to be tricked into eating healthy foods (sure, they're not loaded up on sugar or salt, but in my opinion carrots taste great, better than potato chips!). Hopefully this works out and will be expanded to other fruits and vegetables. Maybe some packaging aimed at adults as well.

[chie]

pre-packaged natural food (that already has its own package, eg carrots, apples) is a ridiculous concept and really telling of the times.

on the other hand, i'm not a big carrot fan, but if i could get fresh fruit, or celery with peanut butter, in a vending machine, i would. something i used to do to make my carrots tastier was dust them in salad dressing powder, essentially cool-ranching them.

[superfoofy]

Love everything about this except the "EAT 'EM LIKE JUNK FOOD" tagline, as if they didn't trust the concept to be communicated by the designs alone. The designs are working, changing the perception of vending machine snack.

Somehow, the tagline feels insulting to me, like you think I don't get it unless you spell it out for me.

[mike]

Instead of spending the money on designing new packaging, perhaps it should be spent on teaching parents how to properly feed their children.

[Barrier Bags]

I think the packing quality of any food product is important. After all packets o bags are responsible for good food quality.

[Daniel]

After some thought, I've come to suspect that the real plan here is to be positioned in school vending machines after junk food has been removed yet before the vending machines themselves are. Some schools have already acted to remove junk food; others will be more inclined to do so if products such as these can are made available.

[Shalin]

I love carrots and I think this is a brilliant idea.

[beav]

Love it! My son just turned 9. He's an avid skateboarder and swimmer and is all "boy". He brings carrots every day to school for a snack and loves them. Of course... right now they're packed in a plain ziplock baggie. If they were in cool packaging like this, I'm sure he would love them even more.

[Kent Brewster]

Given a deep fryer and some truffled salt, carrots may also be turned into bacon: http://bit.ly/b837Z2