Sesame Street Muppets join produce promotion, help harvest White House kitchen garden
October 31, 2013 | 04:53 PM
Sesame Street Muppets Elmo, left, and Rosita got dressed up to join First Lady Michelle Obama at a White House news conference Wednesday announcing the Muppets joining forces with the Produce Marketing Association to promote fresh produce to children. (Eddie Gehman Kohan/Obama Foodorama)
Sesame Street characters Elmo and Rosita will be used in a campaign to help promote fresh fruit and vegetable consumption to kids, First Lady Michelle Obama announced on Wednesday, the same day she and school children harvested produce from the White House kitchen garden.
The Sesame Workshop and the Produce Marketing Association have joined the Partnership for a Healthier America in a two-year agreement that allows PMA’s community of growers, suppliers and retailers to use Sesame Street characters like Big Bird, Elmo, Rosita and Abby Cadabby to help deliver messages about fresh fruits and vegetables without paying a licensing fee. Sesame Street character stickers may be on produce in stores as early as mid-2014.
“The average child watches thousands of food advertisements each year, and 86 percent of these ads are for products loaded with sugar, fat or salt,” the first lady said at a White House event. “By contrast, our kids see an average of just one ad — just one ad — a week for healthy products like water and fruits and vegetables. Just one. And the ads that our kids are seeing are highly effective, particularly those that feature the TV and movie characters that our children have come to love and adore.”
“Just imagine what will happen when we take our kids to the grocery store, and they see Elmo and Rosita and the other Sesame Street Muppets they love, up and down the produce aisle,” she added. “Imagine what it will be like to have our kids begging us to buy them fruits and vegetables instead of cookies, candy and chips.”
In her remarks, Obama referenced a recent study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (now JAMA Pediatrics) conducted by researchers at Cornell University. Researchers gave kids a choice between eating an apple, a cookie, or both and the vast majority of the kids chose the cookies. But when the researchers put Elmo stickers on the apples and let the kids choose again, nearly double the number of kids went for the apple.
“One of the key challenges we face is competing for share of mind and share of plate,” said Jan DeLyser, immediate past chairman of PMA’s board of directors.
“Other food marketers — companies who have seemingly endless budgets enabling them to position and sell their products, especially to kids — are steep competition. As a parent whose kids grew up with the Sesame Street characters, I’m thrilled to be a part of a program that will give the produce industry additional marketing opportunities for our naturally healthful products. The power of the Sesame Street brand is undeniable, especially given the trust parents have in it.”
Muppets Elmo, left, and Rosita help First Lady Michelle Obama and student volunteers harvest broccoli at the White House kitchen garden on Wednesday. (Eddie Gehman Kohan/Obama Foodorama)
Muppets Elmo and Rosita joined in the announcement and also participated in the garden harvest, along with children from Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and District of Columbia schools.
“Wow, look at the garden,” Obama said. “It looks pretty good. For those of you who may have prematurely reported on the demise of the White House kitchen garden, as you can see, it is healthy and growing and fine.”
The first lady recently hosted a convening of food manufacturers at the White House and urged them to do more to encourage children to eat healthy, and Sam Kass, the assistant White House chef who is executive director of the first lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign held a telephone conversation the Produce Marketing Association during its convention.
