Jessica Alba, Cam Newton, and the Fruits and Vegetables Marketing Machine

Jessica Alba and Cam Newton participated recently in an upbeat advertisement for healthful fruit and vegetables, sponsored by the Partnership for a Healthier America.

An AP article Feb 26 explained some of the origins, noting that the new campaign grew out of a broccoli advertisement mockup that Michael Moss of the New York Times organized in late 2013.

A key principle in the economics of food advertising is that there is plenty of incentive to advertise branded food products, which tend to be comparatively less healthful, because the producing firm can claim a large fraction of the increased sales provoked by the campaign. Furthermore, there is plenty of federal government-supported checkoff program advertising money for beef, pork, milk, and cheese commodities, but not fruit and vegetables.

The new campaign makes us wonder, how much better might American diets be if both the federal government and the food industry invested their marketing funds in healthier foods?

Check out the video and ask yourself: is it possible to market fruits and vegetables with the same pizzazz that we market less healthful foods?

FNV, PREPARE TO BE MARKETED TO from Team FNV on Vimeo.