Broccoli is a vegetable that is considered unappealing by many. Not many people will buy broccoli at a supermarket or order a side of broccoli at a restaurant. Advertisement of vegetables is almost nonexistent as junk food and other products are more popular in taste and appearance than broccoli. A group of researchers found that broccoli provides many health benefits such as “…antioxidants, regulating enzymes and controlling apoptosis and cell cycle.” (Vasanthi, et al.). But even with the health benefits provided by broccoli, people still choose not to eat it. People choosing unhealthy alternatives to vegetables creates concern in American society. A change of how broccoli and other vegetables are viewed may be necessary to improve the consumption of vegetables.
In “Broccoli’s Extreme Makeover,” Michael Moss explains the cultural viewpoint of broccoli as a food in America and more generally how modern society is slowly moving away from buying fruits and vegetables, resulting in unhealthy eating habits. He shares his research of interviews with farmers and formed a meeting with an advertising agency to determine how the people of today’s society view vegetables and to start an advertising campaign for broccoli. Although the opinions of many consumers are mostly on the negative side, Michael Moss explains his attempt to promote broccoli using creative advertisement with the agency Victor’s & Spoils.
Produce nowadays are expensive and not as appealing as cheap alternatives. Moss seeks out a way to reduce the cost of produce by increasing its production. He provides a lot of information about a farmer name Brain Reeves who he interviewed when he visited Reeve’s farm. However, increasing the production of vegetables was a challenge and encounter many issues. One major issue that reduces the chance of increasing the production of broccoli is that corn is overly dominant and take over most farmland due to it being so viable in modern society and easy to harvest. Corn can be used for animal feed, syrup or ethanol. It also takes about 99% of all available farmland leaving only 1% to any other produce. Government grants provided by the department of agriculture shows that corn has a research funding of $121 million and broccoli has only $3.2 million. It adds on to the issues that farmers cannot simply switch from corn to other produces because the incentive to grow corn is greater than broccoli and other produces. Reeve explains that corn is far easier to grow and harvest due to the available technology, lower labor requirement and does not require a water system to keep it hydrated as it only requires rain water. Broccoli requires more water and need expensive machines that will harvest the crop without damaging it.
Farmers have many difficulties and require a lot of work to maintain their farms. Reading the article has taught me how difficult it is to increase the production of produce, thus making it difficult to reduce the cost. It also changed my viewpoint of farmers and how much is put into growing produce. It is very surprising to know that corn takes up more farmland and requires less labor to maintain than any other produce. Reducing the cost of produce have shown to be very difficult, thus making it harder to advertise.
Michael Moss shares research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that shows “As of 2010, diet surpassed smoking as the No. 1 risk factor for disease and death in America.” Moss explains, using sources from the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, that the average American are not eating the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables. The health benefits explained in the article shows favorable results, yet people still opt to consume other products.
At first, I didn’t quite understand the benefits of eating produce, but after reading this article I concluded that I need to eat more fruits and vegetables. Broccoli provides many health benefits that can help with “chemoprevention to cardio protection.” (Vasanthi, et al.). All the health benefits explained in the articles further provides me with motivation to eat healthier. Although this is a personal agenda, not everyone will eat produce just because it’s healthy. This is an issue that continues to grow and need to be address.
Moss and ad agency Victor’s & Spoils formed a meeting to start an advertisement campaign aiming to promote broccoli. They used surveys to see the general public’s view on broccoli and the results shows that broccoli is an undesirable food choice due to its poor taste and texture. The group visited an elementary school in Boulder to find out how children view broccoli. Moss explains how the children have positive views of vegetables because of a garden the school has. Although he made good points that schools can have positive influence on children, he brings up that the children’s parents don’t have the same viewpoint on vegetables and this can also influence the children in a negative way. In the article “They said I’m a square for eating them” the authors explain how parents, siblings and friends can easily influence how children view fruits and vegetables. The article also mentions that schools and homes should promote fruits and vegetables. This correlates to the garden in the school that Moss and the team visited. Moss points out that many people he interviewed concluded that there must be another way to advertise broccoli instead of advertising health benefits of broccoli. Moss wrote, “the universal response was to stop sending the message that this is something dutiful you have to do for your health and start advertising more creatively.” Moss brings up Michelle Obama’s speech about produce and the marketing towards children. This speech has a huge impact in promoting healthy eating. Many produce companies started advertisement campaigns by using characters from shows such as iCarly to promote produce.
An issue I came across in the article is that Moss doesn’t bring up the issue of how few schools and parents promote eating healthy to their kids. I believe that the promotion of fruits and vegetables should be targeted at a young audience because children are easily influenced than adults. Catching the attention of the adults can be difficult but catching the attention of children is easy. The issue is that school funding is limited and cannot support the advertisement of produce. Current school systems are simply relaying the information that produce is healthy for you and don’t teach individual students on how this can affect them in the future. A professor from the University of Sydney states, “…campaigns which focused only on the transmission of information and failed to take account of the social and economic circumstances of individuals…” (Nutbeam) A way to change the way broccoli is viewed is to change the educational system by giving the students a reason to eat healthy. A garden can be a positive influence for kids in elementary school. Improving the educational system can prove difficult. I will agree with Moss that major changes are impossible for any normal person to do.
Michael Moss brings up many points to show how much broccoli is neglected and the difficulties to change such viewpoints. Moss and his team from the Victor’s & Spoils agency worked together to bring about a culture change using social media. Social media has always influence children and adults alike. It is not only a very power advertisement tool, but a affordable one as well. One of the slogans they used is “broccoli vs kale.” Pictures were provided with the article showing such advertisements with broccoli vs kale. Many of the advertisements seem to be aimed towards 16-22-year old. Moss doesn’t really explain the results of the advertisements, but the total cost of the whole campaign would have cost $3 million to $7 million dollars. The end of the article goes on about how the campaign can be a tipping point but stops there, leaving me questioning what happens next.
Works Cited
Moss, Michael. “Broccoli’s Extreme Makeover.” (2013). <https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/magazine/broccolis-extreme-makeover.html>.
Nutbeam, Don. “Health Literacy as a Public Health Goal: A Challenge for Contemporary Health Education and Communication Strategies into the 21st Century.” 2000. <https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/15.3.259>.
Povey, Rachel; Lisa Cowap and Lucy Gratton. “They Said I’m A Square for Eating Them: Children’s Beliefs About Fruit and Vegetables in England.” 12. Vol. 118. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 21 September 2016. <https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-03-2016-0131>.
Vasanthi, Hannah R; Subhendu Mukherjee and Dipak K Das. “Potential Health Benefits of Broccoli- A Chemic-Biological Overview.” 2009. <https://doi.org/10.2174/138955709788452685>.