US Food Porn Index blocks

California-based carrot, beverage and dressing company Bolthouse Farms has launched the Food Porn Index, a website that monitors social media for posts including the popular hashtag #foodporn.

The website is part of a new campaign designed to raise awareness of the health and nutritional values of fresh produce, as well as to boost the profile of a brand which was recently purchased by the consumer packaged goods supplier Campbell Soup Company.

At the time of writing, the index had already reportedly tracked a total of 175.3m#foodpornhashtags on Twitter and Instagram, allowing Bolthouse Farms to reach a perhaps unsurprising conclusion: 'Fruits & veggies r getting the shaft.'

With more than 72 per cent of those tagged posts featuring what are deemed to be unhealthy foods, the group has called on people to start posting more pictures of fruits and vegetables to their social medium of choice under the hashtag and, in their words, 'make every#foodporncount' in order to address the imbalance.

'We created the Food Porn Index to collect food porn hashtags and track what kinds of food we're all sharing,' the company commented. 'Because we believe if we can change the way people think (and post) about fresh fruits and veggies, we'll make the world a healthier place.'

While Bolthouse Farms prides itself on its heritage as a vegetable-growing outfit with deep roots in US farming history, it's clear that the kind of marketing budget being brought to bear as a result of the 2012 Campbell buyout is enabling it to produce campaigns that are more far-reaching and sophisticated.

In fact, the index serves that other purpose well, being a very cleverly constructed online games board of product-themed widgets designed to engage consumers and make them think about the products they eat. Incorporating social media, infographics and a healthy dose of silliness and irreverence, there is an obvious amount of potential appeal for young, cynical consumers.

'Fresh thinking has always been part of our DNA,' says the voiceover of a corporate video aimed at consumers (see below). 'We're already working to get fruits and veggies a seat at the cool kids' table, but together we can do it on a bigger scale.'

Topics