Baby Carrots: Eat 'em Like Junk Food.
The Baby Carrots client wanted to make their product appealing to teenagers and kids. The challenge was that baby carrots were perceived as boring and healthy. They needed Crispin Porter + Bogusky to transform baby carrots into an exciting, desirable food, mimicking junk food's appeal to drive consumption among this young audience. The goal was to shift perceptions and significantly increase sales.
Creative Idea
Baby Carrots packaged and advertised themselves like junk food to make healthy eating cool for kids.
Baby Carrots created junk food-style marketing to make healthy vegetables seem cool and appealing to teenagers and kids. By mimicking the packaging, advertising style, and attitude of unhealthy snacks, they transformed baby carrots from a boring vegetable into an exciting, desirable food that young people would want to eat.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
Bolthouse Farms possessed the industrial scale to repackage baby carrots in crinkly, neon snack bags and distribute them through traditional junk food channels like vending machines.
Category
The vegetable category historically relied on earnest, health-focused messaging that emphasized nutritional benefits, making produce feel like a parental obligation rather than a choice.
Customer
Younger consumers crave the sensory intensity, rebellious attitude, and social 'cool' associated with junk food, often viewing healthy eating as boring or unappealing.
Culture
A rising cultural movement against childhood obesity led to the removal of sodas and chips from schools, creating a void for snacks that felt fun.
Company
Bolthouse Farms possessed the industrial scale to repackage baby carrots in crinkly, neon snack bags and distribute them through traditional junk food channels like vending machines.
Category
The vegetable category historically relied on earnest, health-focused messaging that emphasized nutritional benefits, making produce feel like a parental obligation rather than a choice.
Strategy:
Hijack junk food’s rebellious aesthetic and sensory marketing to make healthy vegetables feel like an extreme, indulgent snack.
Customer
Younger consumers crave the sensory intensity, rebellious attitude, and social 'cool' associated with junk food, often viewing healthy eating as boring or unappealing.
Culture
A rising cultural movement against childhood obesity led to the removal of sodas and chips from schools, creating a void for snacks that felt fun.
Strategy:
Hijack junk food’s rebellious aesthetic and sensory marketing to make healthy vegetables feel like an extreme, indulgent snack.
Strategy Technique
Shift the Context
The campaign shifted baby carrots from a healthy vegetable context to a junk food context. This recontextualization made them desirable to a youth audience.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Use Another Category's cliché
Baby Carrots adopted the entire marketing style and attitude of junk food. This made a boring vegetable exciting by mimicking unhealthy snack clichés.
Explore Technique
