Teen Nutrition Education: New Ads Show Teens How Food Affects Their Mood

Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic affecting millions of children and teenagers in the US. Oklahoma is no exception with an estimated 150,000 children who are classified as overweight or obese, the eighth highest youth obesity rate in the country. In response, the Oklahoma Tobacco Endowment Trust (TSET) worked with Rescue Agency to create new ads for their teen nutrition education campaign Swap Up to encourage teens to choose healthy foods over junk foods.

In our research, we found that most teens understand that they should eat healthy and that processed foods are not good for them, but the potential long-term consequences of eating junk food are not motivating enough to change their behavior. 

In our new ads, "The Secret Life of Food," we show teens how their food choices can impact their mood immediately by giving the foods different personalities indicative of their effect on the body. Not only is the ad helpful and informative, but it delivers the message in a funny, entertaining way that captures teens’ attention. Watch our ad created for rural teens to see how we did it.

We also created an ad for urban teens in Oklahoma. Watch the ad now.

The ad then directs teens to the SwapUpOK.com website, where they can learn more about the science behind how food affects their mood and find easy, healthy food swaps for common junk foods. 

In our 3-year evaluation of TSET’s Swap Up campaign, we found that teens who were aware of the campaign were 15% more likely to report eating fruit and 21% more likely to report eating vegetables in the last seven days.

If you want to learn more about working with Rescue on your next nutrition education campaign, please don’t hesitate to contact our team today.