Healthy Influence – Persuasion Blog

Here is a great and inSincere Persuasion play that hides in plain sight.  My compliments to Mr. George Ball.

He wants to win the War on Obesity.  First, here’s his take on the Problem.

Childhood obesity is now the nation’s disease—an ailment crippling the body politic . . . The lineup of culprits includes school vending machines, latchkey children, the endangered home-cooked meal, vanishing physical-education classes, fried everything, supersized portions, sedentary hours spent zoned out in front of the computer screen, nutritional ignorance, misleading labeling and more. But whatever and whoever is to blame, it is surely not kids. We cannot expect children to make the right food choices when healthy foods are out of reach and nutrition-smart role models are not in evidence.

Now, how can we Solve this Problem?  He wants us to eat vegetables and he’s got a plan.

. . . we have found that kids who grow vegetables alongside their parents eat them regularly and with gusto. Peas, green beans and raw carrots—the very vegetables that kids are told to eat, their parents’ admonishing fingers wagging—are particular favorites.

Fabulous.  This works on so many levels.  Yeah, kids work at growing vegetables and that work motivates a greater desire to eat them (also called Dissonance Reduction where you love that for which you suffer).  And, we get Modeling as the kids watch their parents engage in healthy behavior.  And, then we get all those nutritional benefits from eating vegetables.  Then, best of all, obesity is reduced and we start winning the War.

Bring back the family farm.  Or at least the family garden!

Now, here’s the fun part.  Mr. Ball is the chairman of Burpee Inc.  The seed people.  You know, seeds for vegetables.

Here’s my top of the head ad campaign for this intervention inspired by the Frito Lay chip campaign a few years back.

Go ahead.  Plant another.  We’ll make more.

Please read Mr. Ball’s commentary carefully.  It is an outstanding effort in applied persuasion.  He’s using Quotations from Chairman Mike at CSPI and from the Hymnal of the Lifestyle Drum and Bugle Corps to powerful effect.

A Peitho Award nominee for 2011.

P.S. Image at the top of the post is a long shot on the death of Vito Corleone in the tomato garden as his grandson runs away.

P.P.S.  I must shoot straight now.  Mr. Ball’s proposal is an ineffective intervention.  It would produce positive behavior change, but at a tremendous cost of resources.  Any solution that requires manual labor is a bad investment unless the amount of behavior change is a Medium to Large Effect Size.  Even if every American ate the amount and type of vegetables Michael Jacobsen at CSPI recommended, the War on Obesity would still rage on.  Technology, education, and gender roles largely shape the obesity problem in my evaluation.  Of course, I’m just a blogger who counts French fries as a vegetable.