People don't buy health they buy happiness

People don't buy health, they buy happiness

When you think of happiness what do you think of? I’m guessing your immediate thought is not carrots or peas and definitely not broccoli but perhaps your friends and family? Okay so it’s not much of a stretch to then think that having healthy friends and family would make you even happier.

Okay now think about all the adverts you saw on TV last night. New cars, fast food takeaways, the DFS sale... the majority of them using friends and family as the hook to happiness; taking a daughter to school in a new 4x4, spending quality time with the awkward teenager in McDonalds, the romantic couple cosying up in bed before the adorable toddler joins them.

How many adverts did you see for vegetables? According to Food Foundation only 1.2% of all food and drink advertising promotes vegetables so chances are you did not see any – unless you count Kevin the Carrot – but saw a bargain bucket, not just any sticky toffee pudding and the need to hunt for a white crème egg.

Maybe now you can see why the Scottish diet isn’t the healthiest and how advertisers make us think happiness is in buying the latest ‘must haves’ and not in helping us to provide healthy meals and snacks for our loved ones.

However, the worm is on the turn. This month we are getting behind the Veg Power campaign and joining in with the likes of Jamie, Hugh and Nadia, Sainsbury, Lidl and Tesco to promote the promotion of vegetables. Yes I did mean to say that. It’s not about me trying to get you to eat more veg it’s about getting the advertisers to help you to be more aware of veg and its benefits, suggesting ways of adding it to your diet and giving you ways to encourage your kids to eat more veggies too.

The Veg Power campaign also aims to put pressure on big organisations to do stuff like put more veg in their meal deals, encouraging more adverts for vegetables on tv to balance with the amount there are already for sugary snacks and drinks and to find creative ways to get parents and carers to add more veg to their daily meals.

So look out for the launch in the ad break during Coronation Street on the 25^th of January, announcements on the news and special features within a number of your favourite shows like The Voice, This Morning and GMTV. Follow the campaign using the hastag #vegpower