Background

‘Nutritional Ink’ is the third iteration of Dole’s ‘Malnutrition Labels’ campaign – a creative platform that rewrites classic nutritional labels into devastating facts about nutrition. Whilst the first two iterations focused on food insecurity, and then food waste; this iteration was all about bringing the campaign to the UK to shine a light on how nutritionally poor the nation currently is – even as one of the world’s most developed countries. Through research, we uncovered that over 3 million people in the UK are at risk of malnutrition – which isn’t surprising considering we also uncovered how the UK eats more junk food than any other European country. In a bid to raise awareness of the above issues, we wanted to disrupt UK consumers during moments they’re making unhealthy food choices, and demonstrate how nutritionally rich fruit can be in comparison.

Idea

Rationally, people know eating fruit & vegetables is more nutritious than eating junk food - but it’s a fact easily forgotten at a moment of weakness. So we reframed this problem by crafting and printing posters resembling food labels using real fruit ink, and then placed them side by side with some of the UK’s most nutritionally unhealthy snacks. Through the additional power of copy, we made a powerful statement on how unhealthy these food alternatives can be. Given their contextual placement, we could show that our posters had more nutritional value than the various snacks found at fast-food joints, snack-laden corner shops, food trailers, vending machines, and garage stores. Each posters was signed off with ‘Favour more Fruit’ and ‘#ChangeTheFacts’, encouraging people to visit Dole’s website to learn more about nutritional information. The production of the fruit ink was a complex innovation, brought to life by the leading experts in multi-sensory design, Bompas & Parr (and ratified by an independent nutritional expert). We tested a range of fruit and vegetable waste, to see which combinations maximised nutritional value. We then partnered with one of the leading fine art screen printers, spending months trialling multiple fruit ink combinations and ink pulls using sustainable carrier substrate, ensuring both nutritional content and vivid colours.

Results

Through our tactical placements, we were able to capture people’s reactions and decision making - at times when it mattered most. As a purpose-led campaign for Dole, the KPIs were about making an impact beyond the paid media, raising awareness, and getting into culture – beyond building market share or sales. This was about getting people to stop and think again about what good nutrition means to them. We achieved an earned reach of 164 million impressions, on top of the paid media plan, and were featured in 323 articles across consumer and trade press. This delivered an equivalent media value $1.5 million – achieving real cut-through, and getting into the news agenda.