Better Futures
12 Jul 23
5-year evaluation confirms 53% of parents reported increased veg consumption with repeat campaign involvement
Veg Power and ITV announced today five-year evaluation data from their multi-award winning Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign, which confirms that repeated involvement in the campaign leads to increased veg consumption over the long-term [1]. 53% of parents with children involved in the schools’ programme reported a long-term benefit in not only the volume of vegetables consumed, but also the variety [1].
With 29% of children eating less than one portion of vegetables per day [2], these results are an important step in improving children’s diets and the health of our nation. In addition, the findings suggest that more children should benefit from exposure to the campaign as poor diet in childhood not only disadvantages them as kids but also into adulthood, resulting in ever increasing healthcare costs and lower productivity [3].
The Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign inspires kids to eat more veg by combining the power of advertising with a schools’ programme. It brings together a huge alliance including TV advertising, celebrities, supermarkets, chefs, schools, communities and families. Since it launched in 2019, the campaign has directly generated an additional £132m in vegetables sales, equivalent to 1.4bn children’s veg portions [4].
This year’s campaign was supported by £3.5m of advertising led by ITV, Channel 4 and Sky Media reaching 57% of families with children. Evaluation data confirmed that 45% of children and 31% of parents who saw the advertising ate more veg [1]. Applying these figures to the population of UK children, this equates to 1.36m children eating more vegetables as a direct result.
The schools’ programme had another successful year, with now over 1.5 million different children from 4,884 primary and special schools benefiting over the last five years.
2023 evaluation highlights included:
- Increasing veg consumption - 77% of parents who were aware of the programme in their kid’s school reported their child ate more vegetables as a direct result of the campaign.
- Reaching the most “veg resistant” kids - 66% of parents who were aware of the programme in their kid’s school and whose children vocally dislike vegetables, said their child ate more vegetables because of our schools programme.
- Repeating the campaign - the majority of parents (89%) and children (85%) would like the campaign to return next year.
Every year our evaluation has shown that Eat Them To Defeat Them is effective at increasing children’s veg consumption, but this five-year evaluation confirms the effect on behaviour goes beyond that of the campaign and is long-lasting. By increasing vegetable consumption in children over the long-term it will have a huge impact on the quality of their diet and indicates the importance of exposing as many children as possible to it. On a more personal note, I am still blown away by the passion, brilliance and dedication of so many for this campaign. The diverse alliance of hundreds of organisations and thousands of schools that is Eat Them to Defeat Them is quite extraordinary. My sincerest thanks to the teachers, the caterers, the experts and celebrities, our media partners and sponsors and above all to our partners at ITV and the wonderful team at Veg Power.
Dan Parker, Chief Executive, Veg Power
Eat Them To Defeat Them is proof that it’s possible to make long-lasting change through communication - not just to how children think about vegetables, but also to what they choose to eat. It is hugely rewarding to see ITV and Veg Power’s five year long partnership having such an impact.
Susie Braun, Director of Social Purpose at ITV
The 2023 Eat Them To Defeat Them campaign was an alliance between ITV, Channel 4 and Sky Media who have collectively contributed over £15m of advertising to this campaign since it began. This year’s campaign, developed by adam&eveDDB who work on the campaign pro bono, returned to TV screens during The Masked Singer on ITV. The campaign was funded by major supermarket and food brands Aldi, Coop, Dole, Lidl, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose.
Media agency Essence also secured pro bono contributions from advertising and media partners to encourage kids to be more enthusiastic about eating veg. These included Acast, Spotify, Mail Online, Yahoo, First News, LadBible, Mail Metro Media, Ocean Outdoor, Clear Channel and JCDecaux.
Website and Social
https://eatthemtodefeatthem.com
Twitter: @VegPowerUK
#EatThemToDefeatThem
About Veg Power
Veg Power, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, was founded by the Food Foundation, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Sir John Hegarty and Baroness Boycott to turn around vegetable consumption in the UK. It uses advertising and communications to inspire kids to eat vegetables and create life-long good food habits that they will, in turn, share with their children.
Veg Power’s latest campaign ‘Simply Veg’, developed in response to the cost-of-living crisis and decreasing vegetable sales, offers simple, easy ideas from an impressive panel of experts to help reduce the impact on families’ budgets, encourage veg acceptance by children and decrease the amount of food waste.
About ITV Social Purpose
ITV’s Social Purpose is about using the power of ITV to shape culture for good, through using creativity and scale to inspire positive change in the world, and to nurture a responsible and inclusive working environment. ITV’s social purpose encompasses four priorities - better health, diversity and inclusion, climate action and giving back, all with their own measurable goals. https://www.itvplc.com/socialpurpose/overview
References
- Eat Them To Defeat Them Five Years Evaluation - How a radically fun idea got kids eating vegetables https://vegpower.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ETTDT-5-year-Evaluation-report_DIGITAL.pdf
- National Diet and Nutrition Survey Rolling programme Years 9 to 11 (2016/2017 to 2018/2019). Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/ndns-results-from-years-9-to-11-2016-to-2017-and-2018-to-2019
- The National Food Strategy, 2021. The Evidence. https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/NFS_Evidence-Pack.pdf
- Data provided by IRI Worldwide covering retail sales at UK major retailers excluding Aldi and Lidl and based on Veg Power's definition of vegetables which includes fresh, frozen, canned and prepared vegetables, excludes potatoes but includes sales vegetables.