Or to be more accurate, the American Heart Association (AHA) sold Frito-Lay the right to hand out chips and have Cheetos mascot Chester the Cheetah walk with the crowds at this past weekend's AHA Dallas Heart Walk.
The walk is meant to raise money to fund heart disease research and it's a popular one. This year it raised over $4 million, and from the photos it would seem thousands came out.
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| Photo by Twitter's @andy_kahn (Andy Kahn, MD, FACEP) |
And leading those thousands in dance (have a peek right in the middle)?
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| Photo by Twitter's @RyanEverhart |
Yup, this guy, clearly capitalizing on Frito-Lay's walk sponsorship,
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| Photo by Twitter's @dallassinglemom |
Cheetos' mascot Chester who I would imagine was part of the team who then after began handing out bags of chips to the participants.
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| Photo by Twitter's @RyanEverhart |
- Tying their brand to the positive emotions of the walk - joy, hope, charity, happiness, spirit, camaraderie, health, and generosity.
- Direct marketing and sampling of their chip products and the hopeful conversion of participants, ideally young participants, into brand loyal consumers.
- A great "corporate social responsibility"opportunity with which to defend against industry unfriendly legislation and actions as well as use as a foot in the door for other such sponsorships.
- The further normalization of junk food as part of everyday life, this time with the explicit blessing and tacit support of the American Heart Association.
As to what's in it for the American Heart Association? Cold. Hard. Dollars.
My eight year old was watching me as I was encouraging participants to send me pictures of this unholy union. She asked me what I was doing and I did my best to explain it to her. This was her response:
My 8 year old on Chester the Cheeta (Cheetos) being at AHA #DallasHeartWalk, "That makes no sense, chips and cheesies aren't healthy"
— Yoni Freedhoff, M.D. (@YoniFreedhoff) September 8, 2012
I wonder what the AHA would tell her?
