Mexico - As part of a series of initiatives aimed at tackling Mexico's high rates of obesity in children, Nestle has developed a set of cups designed to encourage kids to drink more water. They transform water drinking into a game of "Guess Who?" as the kids answer questions from cards inserted into a plastic disc that fits onto the base, and can be seen through the clear water.
The design is just one of several that have been devised for United for Healthier Kids (U4HK), a program developed by Nestle and Ogilvy Paris that brought together economists, nutritionists, designers and more to come up with ways to get kids eating more healthily through fun and creative products and solutions.
U4HK products also include the Juice Wrestler, a juicer designed as a wrestler's arm which encourages kids to have arm wrestling competitions to make fresh fruit juice, and Story Plate, a plate that comes with interchangeable "landscapes" to encourage kids to make stories with vegetables on their plate, among others.
The U4HK journey started one year ago when Mexico was declared the country with the highest obesity rate in the world. The problem had gone so far, that this generation of children would be the first to live less long than their parents.
Nestlé created United for Healthier Kids to raise awareness and take action on the issue. It is the largest initiative ever aiming at changing eating behaviors, gathering and galvanizing international partners to help raise a healthier generation of kids.
The project has also involved a reality TV show, "Hermosa Esperanza," that aired from September 2014 to March this year, following five Mexican families trying to encourage their overweight kids to lose weight.
The result is a positive and supportive nutritional and behavioral coaching approach not focused on weight loss, but on changing daily behaviors.
Sources: creativity-online.com • Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Paris