Organization: California Center for Public Health Advocacy
Agency: Brown-Miller Communications
Timeframe: 2009
With the national obesity crisis growing to epidemic proportions, some health experts say there’s a need for consumers to understand what they’re eating—not just how much in terms of caloric content. For consumers in California trying to make sense of what they were eating in restaurants, with meager information at hand, it was a frustrating experience. At the same time, health advocates in the Golden State who were pushing this issue were running up against an immutable force: a powerful fast-food lobby.
HOLLOW LEGISLATION
As a sponsor of landmark restaurant menu-labeling legislation (Senate Bill 1420), the California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA) enlisted the services of Bay Area-based Brown-Miller Communications to increase public understanding of and support for the nation’s first statewide menu-labeling law. According to Michael Miller, president of Brown-Miller Communications, the agency was brought to the project after having worked with the California Center for Public Health Advocacy for over a decade on a host of nutrition issues, mostly addressing them from a media advocacy point of view.
Although the first year proved to be initially propitious, with health advocates being instrumental in winning legislative support for the bill, ultimately these initial victories were Pyrrhic—as the bill was eventually killed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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| California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signs the SB 1420 bill into law, paving the way for caloric labeling on restaurant menus. Photo courtesy of Brown-Miller Communications. |
In the second year of the campaign, the fast-food industry drafted an alternative bill to the previous bill health advocates had endorsed.
Though it was designed to be responsive to the call for more disclosure, health advocates considered the bill—even though it was championed by the media and public—as nothing more than a timid cover for politicians. Plus, there was the Restaurant Association (with heavy fast-food representation) to contend with, the latter described by Miller as a “powerful lobby.” The CCPHA felt like David in a battle waged against Goliath.
“The argument the Restaurant Association was using was that [the menu-labeling legislation] was ‘nanny government,’” says Miller. “[They argued that the bill had] too much government intrusion.” Unfortunately, that argument resonated with the public.
Miller and his team adopted a counter-approach to quell the arguments from the other side. “We recast this as a consumer’s right to know,” he says. “[With this legislation,] the government wasn’t telling you what to do: It was giving you information to make a wise decision.”
HUNGER FOR KNOWLEDGE
To further strengthen their position against the Restaurant Association, the team conducted intensive research. The CCPHA commissioned Field Research Corp. to launch two statewide polls: the first measured public support for both pieces of legislation as well as broader understanding about key issues related to a consumer’s right-to-know and obesity-related issues—all essential in the messaging the team would develop.
The second was a quiz to test consumers’ knowledge of the nutritional value of common fast foods. This was instrumental in proving to legislators and the public the futility of relying on “common sense” when making food choices. “We were able to show that people don’t know what they’re doing when picking [a nutritional item] from a menu,” says Amanda Bloom, development director of the CCPHA.
LABELING SUPPORT
The research findings helped form the framework of a campaign whose goal was to mobilize political and public support for California’s first statewide menu labeling legislation, while countering the restaurant industry’s alternative call for the creation of separate informational brochures that would be available for customers to read separate from a menu. Other objectives include:
• Move beyond health and food coverage to capture mainstream attention by doubling coverage in news and editorial sections in the second year of the campaign;
• Surround legislators with sustained media coverage addressing the efficacy of menu labeling in order to shift at least 50% of their votes in support of SB 1420; and,
• Undermine the credibility of the fast-food industry’s legislation and arguments.
The primary targets for the campaign were California state legislators and the governor, while the secondary audience was the California public.
The team then devised a strategy whose key tactics would include:
• Frame messages in a more consumer-friendly voice;
• Link this legislation to the growing obesity epidemic by presenting menu labeling as a solution legislators could own; and,
• Launch a social media campaign engaging a broader audience and giving the public a voice in opposing the restaurant industry’s misleading legislation by subjecting it to public review.
MEDIA ON THE MENU
Media outreach was fundamental to the implementation and execution of the campaign. The team developed press materials, including press releases, fact sheets, poll results and charts illustrating the effectiveness of menu labeling; there were also photos of sample restaurant menu boards with calorie counts. Materials were distributed to media, legislators and advocates, and posted on the Internet.
Key journalists around the state were invited to take the same fast-food quiz given to consumers to test their knowledge of nutritional items. The poll gained a great deal of traction, becoming the subject of a series of columns, radio shows and television programs.
To further discredit the claims of the opposition, the team actively showed the media and legislators examples of successful menu-labeling experiments such as those seen in New York City and Seattle, and the resulting positive health impacts. A press conference was also staged in Gov. Schwarzenegger’s pressroom to introduce new research demonstrating the negative impact fast food was having on the health of increasingly obese children.
GRASSROOTS APPROACH
Word of mouth was also important in spreading the message of the campaign. The team armed grassroots activists with information kits to help them lobby local media and legislators through letters to the editor and e-mail campaigns.
Social media was also critical in getting the campaign’s message out. Here the team created and widely distributed (through YouTube and directly to the media and legislators) a man-on-the-street video that poked fun at the fast-food industry’s brochure proposal by showing consumers hopelessly trying to find relevant information in complex fast-food foldouts (see sidebar, “Humor as a Serious Weapon”).
The public was also encouraged to post their thoughts about the legislation in the blogosphere and on online comment pages.
BUDGET BREAKDOWN
The budget for the campaign was $40,000, which Miller says was minute next to the budget the Restaurant Association had in its coffers to launch its campaign against the bill. Most of the money was spent for the development of the PR materials (i.e. press releases) and social media components.
On the agency side, Miller says a team of three worked on the campaign inception to completion, with much of their work done “at a pretty aggressive level doing media outreach.”
On the organization’s side, Bloom says there were six people working on the program. Among them were the executive director, the assistant director, the regional director and herself. But there were others on the activist level doing their part.
The time spent working on the campaign became more extensive and intense as it entered its final months. “We were putting in an office task time of 30 hours per week,” recalls Miller. Much of that time was spent “working with the media, developing the press materials and pitching media, which took 40% of our time.” The social media aspects, he adds, took up approximately 20% of the team’s time.
SATISFYING RESULTS
The campaign created a climate of pressure that induced legislators and the governor to make California the first state to pass menu-labeling legislation. Some signposts along the way to legislative victory:
• The campaign generated nearly 26 million media impressions;
• The constant media attention coupled with the public support for menu labeling helped turn the tables. Also, the outpouring of editorial support helped move the governor from his previous veto position to embrace the bill as a platform of his statewide health initiative;
• The YouTube video, which lampooned the fast-food industry’s idea of brochures, garnered 5,000 views in a week and was featured on The New York Times editorial blog;
• The day after signing the bill, Yum Brands announced it would voluntarily post calories on menu boards at all company-owned stores across the nation, including KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver’s and A&W. PRN
Contacts:
Michael Miller, [email protected]; Amanda Bloom, [email protected].