We all know that you don’t put diesel in your tank if your car takes four star unleaded. But we’re still more than happy to fill our bodies full of shit, happily ignoring the damage we’re doing to our own internal engines. Obesity levels in the UK have doubled since the 1980s and the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) now claims that over a third of 2 to 15 year olds in the UK are either overweight, or obese. That’s a lot of potential dead fat people.
So while the FAU (Food Advertising Unit) and the IOTF battle it out over how much the UK’s advertising industry is really doing to stop promoting such cheap and sugary sources of corporate shareholder revenue; the DfES and MTV no less, have teamed together to create Animunch.
Animunch is a competition open to 11 to 18 year olds to design an animated ad for MTV and Nickleodeon to promote healthy eating in kids. You get to design two new cartoon characters and the winning entry will be realised by a team of Nickleodeon’s animators and run on both channels. For the sake of a couple of years we’d have our crayons out ourselves. The competition is currently being sponsored by England footballer Steven Gerrard, Daily Mirror columnist Alex Curran and runner Paula Radcliffe, but no Jamie as yet.
And what a novel idea. Kids listen to other kids. They respond to other kids. They know when they’re being spoken to on the level as opposed to being talked down to by patronising idiots. And unfortunately they’re highly receptive to every insiduous marketing effort beamed at them through every crackpot tv station clogging up the airwaves. So getting kids to advertise good things to kids. It’s got to be worth a try.
If you have a child of your own, younger sibbling, or are just being beaten up by one on the train home, perhaps you might suggest to them that they unleash their artistic streak and enter. It is their future after all.
We gave our own effort, Judge (Wholemeal) Bredd to our favourite sketcher Smudge (aka Mr Neil Smith); see above. Are we in with a chance?
