Food advertisement

As a team, select one edible food item to feature in the advertisement. It can be a singular, whole food, like a banana, a recipe or a dish, like salsa, an ingredient, like cinnamon, or a product category, like cereal. The advertisements must be original, so avoid existing packaged products, like ‘Clif Bars’, and present total, not single-ingredient, nutrition information for multi-ingredient items like smoothies. The nutrition information for most single and multi-ingredient food servings can be found at FoodData Central.

The Written Portion

The written portion is a short summary consisting of sections A.B and C. It does not require a market research review, nor will it be evaluated based on the marketing data it presents. The team’s ability to align a food with the nutrients featured, the biological functions those nutrients possess, and consumer wants and needs will be the primary basis for grading. Information gathering is needed to complete the written portion, but works cited are not.

Describe the food. Include information like where it originates, how it is customarily eaten or used, where it is purchased, what food group it fits into, and for multi-ingredient products, what the main ingredients are. The most important part of section A is to identify 2-3 nutrients or phytochemicals that provide in one serving an amount that qualifies to use the FDA nutrition claims described in C and that satisfy the nutrition needs of the audience described in B.

Describe the target audience. Include demographic information about who buys the food, what about it they value, which styles and cultures they might identify with, and most importantly, what their nutrition needs are.

Describe the advertisement. Include information about the delivery format, whether video, graphic, song, etc., and the fonts, colors, and artistic themes that will attract the target audience. The most important part of section C is the description of two featured FDA-approved nutrition claims that will appear in the ad. The claims can be Nutrient Content Claims, Health Claims, or Structure-Function Claims, but they must be relevant to the target audience, legitimate, and properly worded. To learn the FDA criteria for Nutrient Content Claims use, review Appendix A-B, and to differentiate between Health and Structure-Function claims and the requirements for their use, review Appendix C.