This project requires students to develop a targeted Food Advertisement. Before reading the instructions, please note that this project does not require a review of market research or marketing background, and it is not evaluated based on the quality of marketing information it presents. The basis for grading is essentially the student’s ability to appropriately align a food with nutrients, biological functions, and consumer nutrition needs while gaining insight into nutrition claims and marketing.
GETTING STARTED
Select one food item that will star in the advertisement. It can be a singular, whole food, like a banana, a recipe or a dish, like potato salad, an ingredient, like cinnamon, or even a broad product category, such as ‘Ready-to-Eat Cereal’, or ‘Instant Oatmeal’. Keep in mind that the advertisement must be original, so do not use existing packaged products, like ‘Naked Juice’ or ‘Cliff Bar’, or grocer’s brands, like ‘Trader Joe’s Milk’, since their marketing will be easy to unintentionally copy.
THE WRITTEN PORTION
The written portion is a 300–600-word summary that describes the advertisement as specified in section headings A. B. C. The written portion must be submitted to Canvas Assignments as a “Text Entry” and works cited are not needed.
A. Describe the food in 200 words max. Include information like where it originates, how it’s customarily eaten or used, where it’s purchased, what food group it fits, and for multi-ingredient products, what the main ingredients are. The most important part of section A is to identify 2-4 nutrients or phytochemicals that are featured in the food, including the amounts provided per standard-size serving. Be sure that the amounts per serving qualify to use the FDA nutrition claims described in section C and satisfy the audiences’ nutrition needs described in section B.
B. Describe the audience in 200 words max. Include demographic information about who buys the food, what they value about it, which styles and cultures they might identify with, and most importantly, what their nutrition needs are.
C. Describe the advertisement in 200 words max. Include information about the delivery format, like whether it’s a video, a graphic, a song, etc., and the styling used to attract the target audience, such as fonts, colors, and artistic themes. The most important part of section C is to identify at least two FDA-approved nutrition claims that will be featured in the ad. The claims can be Nutrient Content Claims, Health Claims, or Structure-Function Claims, but they must be relevant to the target audience, legitimate, and properly worded. To learn the FDA criteria to use NCCs review Appendix A-B
Links to an external site.
, and review Appendix C
Links to an external site.
to differentiate between Health and Structure-Function claims and learn the criteria and language for their use.
THE ADVERTISEMENT
The advertisement mirrors the written summary. It can be any medium or format-digital or print, hand-drawn, colored, or black and white, realistic, or abstract, still or motion framed, but it must be titled by the featured food and attached to the Written Portion as a jpeg, .mp4., or .pdf. In case it wasn’t clear, the ad must display the featured food and at least two nutrition claims. The design should appeal to the target audience and it should be attentive to visual presentation details, such as a sharp focus and a clean and consistent layout.
SAMPLE WRITTEN PORTION: 311 Words
A. Bananas are a nutritious and widely available fruit. They are easy and portable and often marketed as a healthy snack. Bananas can be eaten raw, fresh out of the peel, and they can be used in recipes to texturize and sweeten popular baked foods, smoothies, sauces, and puddings. Bananas are high in potassium and fiber, and low in calories and sodium; one medium (118 grams) banana has 100 calories, 3 grams of fiber, 450 mg of potassium, and only 1 mg of sodium.
B. Elderly adults are the target audience. They purchase bananas because they are soft and easy to swallow, affordable, and easy to access. This audience will likely identify most with historic or nostalgic themes and with child and middle-aged subjects or models to represent generations and families. Larger and more stand-out fonts will be used, and color choices will provide contrast and easy-to-see statements. Sodium and potassium-related nutrition claims will appeal to elderly adults since they are advised by health professionals to by acquiring adequate daily potassium and to limit daily sodium intake to offset age-related declines in sodium homeostasis and subsequent cardiovascular risk.
C. The advertisement is a graphic display of a cowboy sitting atop a horse in an old west/saloon-lined street with a banana on his hip and hand to it like a pistol. The entire ad is sepia-colored except for a bright yellow banana and font, which read along the top, “Keep quick on the draw”. The nutrient content and health/structure-function claim fittest for an ad targeting an elderly audience are “excellent potassium source”, “sodium-free”, and “Diets containing foods that are a good source of potassium and that are low in sodium may reduce the risk of high blood pressure and stroke.” The levels that qualify for these claims are less than 5 mg for sodium and at least 10 percent Daily Value for Potassium.