Watch 3-year-old Lukas grazing snacks all day: A confronting Dutch childhood obesity awareness campaign

'Also happy with this environment?' is the question posed by the Dutch Nutrition Center in their new campaign. The video of this campaign is definitely worth watching.

Many children have poor eating habits which may lead to overweight and obesity. Children are constantly bombarded with unhealthy, high-caloric snacks and meals. As a result, children nowadays live in a so-called 'toxic food environment', a term invented by obesity researcher Kelly Brownell. 

Successful obesity awareness campaigns require careful consideration of the target group and a key relevant message. On the one hand, they need to make parents aware of the seriousness of the problem. On the other hand, they need to provide useful information and not stigmatize or shame overweight children. This is not simple, as shown by a failed and controversial US childhood obesity campaign.

I particularly like the final scene of the video in which Lukas refuses the healthy meal cooked by his parents. It is a very familiar scene for many parents, including myself. Have a look yourself!

Netherlands Nutrition Centre goes viral with ecological foot print guru

Yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised by a personalized video message of the Voeroe, a guru that knows everything about your ecological foot print. At the website of the Nutrition Centre you can calculate your own food print. At Twitter, you can ask a question to the guru and if you are lucky, he will answer you personally.

I think this is a very innovative way to involve consumers beyond the traditional website. When done in the right way, they help organizations to really connect with consumers and get the message across. It is not easy, however, to create a successful campaign. In 2010, Old Spice developed a social media campaign in which 'The Old Spice Guy' responded to questions posed by fans, celebrities and bloggers in more than 180 personalized videos. This campaign was extremely successful (25 million views!) and inspired many other companies to use viral marketing to promote their products.

Tippex campaign: tell the hunter what to do

Since then, a lot has been learned on how to best create these virals. Basically, they should provide unique, funny and high quality content, otherwise people will not share it. And social media is all about sharing.


My all-time favourite is the Tippex Bear; it is really interactive, hilarious and entertaining! Try it yourself and you will not be bored the coming fifteen minutes.