The American Food Pyramid

 

 

                                   

 

 

And we wonder why our

kids are overweight.

 

 

Sponsored by the American Association for Children’s Health.

                       

 

1. With a growing number of obese and overweight children in this country, my communication objective is that when parents feed their children the kinds of foods portrayed in this pyramid, it is clear why their children are overweight.

 

2. This ad is targeted at the parents who are still making choices about what their children eat. In a way, I am trying to make them feel guilty for making bad choices about the fast foods that they feed their children. Ultimately, the ad will make them feel responsible for feeding their children a balanced diet rather than the ridiculous one shown here.  Surely I could have targeted this ad at any group of people in the United States by changing the text to fit that group, because our entire country is battling obesity.  I chose to target this ad at parents because they control what their children eat.   Hopefully, if they make better choices when their children are still young, they can help their children make better choices when they are older.

 

3. This message would be a one page advertisement placed in a Parents magazine. Because parents generally read this magazine, the advertisement would reach the target audience. But perhaps the parents that are feeding their children fast food also do not have time to read Parents magazine.  For that reason, I would also have this ad as one part of a three-fold pamphlet including other children’s health tips and topics. This pamphlet would be distributed to the pediatric departments in doctor’s offices and hospitals to have available in their lobbies.

 

4. The concept for this ad is that our country has a ridiculous diet and as adults we are passing it on to our children. In other advertisements, I would continue this concept, playing off different images other than the food pyramid to mock our current eating and feeding patterns.

 

5. The image in this advertisement is the highly recognizable food pyramid, filled with a variety of fast foods instead of nutritional foods. In order to fully understand the purpose of the image, viewers must have a background understanding of the original food pyramid. The fast food restaurant images are from well-known restaurants and should be recognizable to most viewers, especially in the Midwest.

 

6. The headline, “The American Food Pyramid” is designed to catch viewers’ attention and make them think. I want them to be curious about what is inside the “American” food pyramid. Upon reading the headline, they should then focus their attention on the image.

 

7. I kept the copy fairly simple because the image illustrates the main message and the copy simply directs that message at parents.  The copy is a bit cynical, but that is part of what makes the ad interesting. I decided that the authors of an ad such as this one would be a non-profit organization advocating for the health and well being of children, so I included their signature at the bottom of the ad.

 

Overall, I went with the less is more theme. If I were actually publishing this advertisement, I would add a red background color to brighten it up a bit.