Rationale

Through research we identified the effects that sugar has on a user’s wellbeing are similar to those of a bad relationship. From this we developed a comedic rhetoric portraying sugar as a bad relationship. We are encouraging our audience of New Zealand young adults to “break-up” with their sugar addiction. Our overall visual style hijacks bright colours that are associated with sugar to appeal to young adults. Our campaign called MySugarBreakup is made of 3 key stages: awareness, engagement and sharing. In the awareness stage, posters, billboards and radio advertisements introduce the concept of sugar as a negative relationship through humour and personification. Users are encouraged to take notice and learn about their own diets and lifestyles. In the engagement stage, we have a 21-day challenge focusing on creating a healthy more active lifestyle, which people can engage with through our app. The app employs gamification with a supportive team environment to encourage positive lifestyle changes and stir up competition. The app gives users 5 specific tasks per week over 3 weeks. Each task must be checked off as ‘completed’ by the user each day. Over time, the user will reduce the sugar in their diet, positively influencing their general wellbeing. The sharing stage of our campaign encourages word-of-mouth through social media to spread the word on the issue and MySugarBreakup throughout their journey. At the end of their 21-day challenge we encourage them to give back, by inviting someone else they know to join the breakup. They would then support them; giving advice and support back to someone else. In the end we aim to positively affect the health and wellbeing of young New Zealanders through the reduction of sugar in their diet in an easy and fun way.