Ringers Creative has launched an advocacy campaign for The Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) with a film of children talking about junk food ads and how they make them feel as its centrepiece. The audio clips were shared with music producer Jack Colleran who created an original track. Ross Killeen’s Motherland produced the film with Peter O’Brien as director.
Bobby Byrne, co-founder of Ringers, said: “When we were children, our parents consumed the same media as us, they saw what we saw. They understood the media landscape. Today, children navigate social media as individuals. And they are tracked and heavily targeted by fast food and confectionery brands. We don’t get to see what they see in real time.
“We wanted to show parents the ads their kids are seeing and how many they are seeing. Parents can then decide for themselves if it’s ok,” Byrne added. He said that at the end of the day, marketing and advertising, when done properly, works for brands. The hope is that this advocacy campaign works for the Irish Heart Foundation and for Irish children.
Bombarded
Children are being bombarded by online ads and it’s impacting their food choices. In an IHF survey of 500 teenagers, 57 per cent reported that online media most influenced their food choices, 64 per cent said that apps like TikTok and Instagram were inundated with images of high-fat, sugar and salt foods, and 35 per cent said they consumed junk food as a result.
“When we saw the research results, we knew we had to use the voices and experiences of real children,” Ringers co-founder Steven Mangan said. Online marketing manipulates food choices and fuels an obesity crisis. As well as campaigning for an ad ban, the IHF calls on the Government to fulfil its 2020 promise to introduce a Public Health (Obesity) Act.
Watch the IHF film here.
Photo: Ringers co-founders Bobby Byrne (on left) and Steven Mangan with agency account director Kathleen Healey at the launch outside Buswells Hotel
