Kids and Diet Choice

Professional Blog 1 BSB

For Business Storytelling and Brand Development at Full Sail University


“Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will be dead from the food that they eat.” _Jamie Oliver_TED2010 Prize Winner



For my Full Sail Blog Assignment

I choose the TED presentation “Teach every child about food” because I loved reading Fast Food Nation and watching the documentary Super Size Me. As I was eating my McRib, Chicken McNuggets, and drinking filtered water, I watched his TED presentation three times. I love when Oliver tells the mom from his video that she is killing her kids. I mean the rhetoric strategy he uses with the phrase “Killing you Kids” is brilliant, shocking, and very satiric.

Nonetheless, the seriousness of the diet and exercise issues in the USA are interesting and financially fascinating. Oliver's message is clear: The problem when it comes to diet and exercises is that the message has been geared to adults and not kids. For example, Veggie Tales is more focused on different moral messages from the Christen Bible, then the dietary practices from the Bible (Veggie Tales and Bible Diet).

Taking in consideration Kawasaki (2007) advice that a company must have a purpose before it can make profit, Oliver is making a career out of informing us we are killing ourselves and our children with dietary ignorance. His mission is noble and profitable. Of course, when considering edutainment video games and Oliver’s message, the opportunity to develop games that are edutainment and bring dietary awareness to kids also seems like a noble and profitable endeavor.

The problem in regards to Video Games…

Trying to figure out children’s edutainment in general begs to categorical questions: Do children find it fun? Do children learn something? The first question is something that has been answered by franchises such as Organ Trial and Where in The World is Carmen San-Diego. These titles for years have been repackaged and placed on video game shelves. The content of these games is static and limits the range of current topics that may need to be explored (Owens 2009).

One current topic I’ve been interested in exploring is health and food. Saporito (2009) did an intresting review where he looked at many games that involved food. In this interesting case study, he finds that few games actually teach kids how to eat healthy or prepare food. Cooking Mama a very successful franchise on Nintendo DS and on the internet does nothing to truly teach about health, food, or even cooking. Cooking Mama arguably is the most enthralling food game by it’s success, but can not be considered Edutainment because it does not attempt to teach anything about food.

The Solution…

If Oliver has stirred his healthy ideas for people with his show, video games are another medium that can push his message. If games can teach kids to be dietary healthy, then the game should borrow elements from Japanese gaming. Involve a crazy plot, insert real food choices, and feed the children real information about eating and cooking. Imagine instead of trying to find the next “poke’mon”, it’s regional plant to help a chief achieve the next level of culinary mastery. The big mistake based on Saporito observation is either the game takes itself to seriously or not seriously at all.


References
Kawasaki, G (2007, Nov 16) Creating Mantra not Mission from the (2004) Art of Start retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT7xlFTinIw


Owens, T (2009) A Walk Down Edutainment Lane: Or, What Target Taught Me About Serious Gameshttp://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blogs/a-walk-down-edutainment-lane

http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/information/cooking-games-edutainment-vs-entertainment/

Saporito, J. (2009, April, 08) Cooking Games: Edutainment Vs. Entertainment
Retrieved from http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/information/cooking-games-edutainment-vs-entertainment/

“Bible Diet” http://www.planetpace.com/

“Veggie Tale” https://bigidea.com/index.aspx