Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Toronto's SickKids Hospital New Oreos Fundraising Campaign

Because of course they are.

SickKids hospital has never shied away from junk food fundraising and their latest campaign sees them working with food giant Mondelez to promote the sale of Oreo cookies.

Mondelez of course is thrilled and sees this partnership as,
"a first step in a long-term partnership that will “allow for even more collaborative opportunities across portfolios and brands"
The partnership also benefits Dairy Farmers of Canada who are likely running damage control following the release of a Food Guide that rightly de-emphasized milk's unique importance in our diets and removed  our prior Guide's explicit recommendations around its consumption and instead simply included dairy in the protein foods grouping.

Dairy Farmers are likely worried about the impact the Food Guide's changes will have on their lucrative school milk programs and perhaps that's what underlying their stated campaign rationale of "helping kids reach their full potential”, which no doubt will have more weight with SickKids' push.

Apparently the campaign will include, "TV, cinema, digital, social media and public relations", and there's zero doubt that industry's expectations are despite the campaigns likely huge costs, they'll enjoy a return on their investment, either by way of direct sales, or by protecting current initiatives (like school milk programs).

As to what's in it for Sick Kids, of course it's just money. No doubt too that the amount of money SickKids is likely to get by way of fundraising with cookies, will be a fraction of what will be spent on the campaign to which they're lending their name and integrity to market them.

No doubt too, if this were about altruism for the Mondelez and Dairy Farmers, they'd just cut cheques.