Content & creative for Cancer Council Victoria

Food fight

Protecting young
minds from junk
food marketing

Overview

Food Fight is a multi-year social marketing campaign that aims to drive policy reform and push legislation around the removal of unhealthy food and drink advertising within 500m of schools, on public transport and near public transport infrastructure in Victoria.

Following the success of Phase 1, which aimed to raise awareness of the issue of unhealthy food and drink marketing to children and its impact on cancer risk, Phase 2 built on these foundations while framing the Victorian Government as holding the solution to protecting children from unhealthy food and drink advertising.

Cancer Council Victoria partnered with ICON in 2023 to deliver video assets to be used as part of a digital and social media campaign, that would urge the Victorian Government to take necessary action.

Background

The processed food industry spends millions each year making sure their ads are everywhere children go, bombarding them with at least 25 unhealthy food and drink advertisements every single day. In Melbourne, 62% of food ads near schools promote unhealthy food and drinks.

Unhealthy diets put children at greater risk of being above a healthy weight in childhood, which can track into adulthood and increase the risk of at least 13 types of cancers and chronic disease later in life.

Off the back of the Phase 1 campaign, over 10,000 people and 30 community organisations joined the Food Fight campaign calling on the Victorian Government to remove unhealthy food and drink ads from public transport and other government property, and from within 500 meters of schools.

The primary objectives of the Phase 2 campaign were to deliver long lasting impact by highlighting the solution to protect children from unhealthy food and drink marketing to policy makers, stakeholders, influencers and current supporters, and engage existing individuals and organisations actively supporting Food Fight to take further action.

Challenge

Our creative territory needed to position the Victorian Government as the only actor who can implement a truly impactful solution, framing them as the hero to the problem. The Government however had previously taken a ‘hands-off’ approach to the issue, putting the responsibility back on individuals to educate and protect their children.

The creative output needed to do three things:

Position action from the Victorian Government as the true solution to this important issue
Encourage community sign-up and support
Engage important stakeholders in influencing change.

Solution

The final result was a powerful film and PR push that gained massive media attention, sporting eye-catching visuals while reinforcing a strong call to action. The outcome was the successful rallying of parents, organisations and communities to support the movement and a healthier future for Australian children. Key outcomes included:

Campaign video reaching nearly 1 in 5 Australians – more than 4 million
Over 250 mentions in news media
More than 10 thousand new petition signatures, mobilising an already growing movement and lending it greater legitimacy.

For more information on the campaign, go to: https://www.cancervic.org.au/foodfight