Eat Real Food, That's What We Do

Beating a $14 billion junk‑food ad blitz with a zero‑dollar creative swarm.

Why the Food System Sounds Like a Broken Record

Food, beverage, and restaurant brands blast out roughly $14 billion a year in U.S. advertising, and more than 80 percent sells fast‑food, sugary drinks, candy, and salty snacks. (stateofchildhoodobesity.org, uconnruddcenter.org) The signal drowns everything else.

Meanwhile, every federal commodity check‑off program combined scrapes together under $900 million a year; fruits and vegetables get only a sliver. (heritage.org, worc.org) Legendary slogans like “Got Milk?”, “Pork: The Other White Meat,” and “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner.” came from that pool, but the money is thin and the process slow. (newrootsinstitute.org, porkcheckoff.org, beefboard.org)

When shoppers hear a $14 billion chorus telling them Pop‑Tarts are breakfast, they believe it. Add decades of low‑fat dogma and pesticide panic, and trust in “real food” crumbles.

And we blame consumers for not making healthy decisions?

It’s Time to Create a New Script and GO VIRAL

• We have over 60 MILLION kids: between 6 and 19 years old and they ALL want to “go viral”, add a Taylor Swift type jumping into a challenge and the rest is history. Case in point At a Kansas City Chiefs game, a fan account posted a photo of Swift eating chicken with “seemingly ranch,” sparking a Twitter meme avalanche. ‘Seemingly ranch’ trended globally within hours. Heinz released a limited edition ‘Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch’ sauce within days. Millions of social mentions across TikTok and X (Twitter).

• Influencer economics are cheap: Brands will pour $24 billion into influencer marketing in 2024, yet an authentic clip can out‑perform a studio spot for pennies. (oberlo.com)

• Virality scales non‑linearly: The Ice Bucket Challenge raised $115 million in eight weeks with no media buy. (thebrandhopper.com, als.org)

• Story beats spend: Dollar Shave Club spent $4,500 on a launch video and logged 12,000 orders in 48 hours, later selling to Unilever for $1 billion. (optimonk.com, vanityfair.com)

• Humor trumps habit: Old Spice doubled body‑wash sales on a 60‑second joke. (wk.com, en.wikipedia.org)

One Loud Voice Can Flip a Giant

In 2013, blogger Vani Hari (“Food Babe”) persuaded Kraft to ditch Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 from Mac & Cheese after 365,000 signatures. No budget, no marketing agency, just a viral petition. (foodbabe.com) Researchers had complained for decades; a single digital spark did what white‑coats couldn’t.

“Viruses are drivers of evolution.”
 virologist discussion on SGU podcast (sgutranscripts.org)

The same principle applies to ideas. Let them replicate fast enough, and even the biggest incumbents can’t contain the spread.

The Democratization of Video Production Moment

Generative video has gone from Hollywood to the laptop. Google’s Veo 3 now pumps out 8‑second, sound‑synced clips straight from text prompts and is already live in Canva and rolling into YouTube Shorts. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com, blog.google)

I fed it this prompt:

“A photorealistic Holstein in denim and a red bandana, selfie‑style in a grocery store, scoffs at neon cereal boxes, walks to the fish counter, and says: ‘I can't believe the processed crap they call food. Me, I love fish. If you want to live longer, you got to eat real food and vegetables. That's what we do.’”

Eight seconds later, I had a clip that could run on TikTok, IG Reels, and Shorts with zero post‑production.

Tools once reserved for ad agencies now sit one click away from every teenager with Wi‑Fi.

Enter the Swarm Strategy

We have 1 million FFA members and six million 4‑H kids who already care about agriculture. (ffa.org, 4-h.org) Hand them Veo. Ask them to end every video with a single, consistent brand statement…

“If you want to live longer, you got to eat real food and vegetables. That's what we do.”

And let them riff.

Picture 100,000 creators dropping shorts, memes, and spoofs each week. A peacetime version of Ukraine’s anti-Russia drone swarms: small, cheap, relentless, and hard to defend against. A swarm of the Pre-Chronic millennials and gen-z pushing away the boomers and transforming health.

Algorithms reward novelty, not budgets.

Loose Guardrails, Tight Chorus

1. Creative kit: open Google Drive with logo stamp, hashtag #RealFoodWins, audio bites, and thumbnail templates.

2. Three content lanes:

   • Comedy (anthropomorphic cow videos).

   • How‑to (30‑second recipes shot on phones).

   • Myth‑busting micro‑lectures (split‑screen duets debunking junk‑food claims).

3. Incentives: monthly leaderboard; top ten views win $5,000 college scholarships funded by commodity boards (still cheaper than one agency retainer).

4. Distribution: FFA/4‑H chapters post locally; influencers stitch nationally; check‑off programs cross‑post but never dictate.

5. Governance: lightweight Slack workspace plus a rotating “editorial barn” of five volunteers who flag off‑brand content. Keep rules minimal; virality hates red tape.

What Entrepreneurs and Investors Should See

The swarm is an arbitrage play on attention. For the cost of one Superbowl spot you could fund ten years of scholarships that mobilize a million teen creators. Each clip nudges purchase intent marginally; the network effect does the heavy lifting.

Commodity boards need only supply a seed fund, data dashboards, and clear legal paths for using the shared tagline. Creators handle the rest, versioned for every dialect, diet, and dance trend.

Call to Arms

Here is our chance.

REALLY it’s YOUR chance - your kids chance - you and your friend's chance - heck maybe it’s your grandmas chance…If you have ideas for this, want to use this as a summer challenge for your kids, shoot video, design stickers, code analytics, or write a check, step forward.

The junk‑food lobby has money.

We have a million creative kids and a single sentence.

The walls of Jericho never saw TikTok coming.