The “Not So Sweet Side” Campaign
CLIENT
CalFresh Healthy Living – California Dept. of Public Health
Deliverables: campaign branding, broadcast and social video, out-of-home and place-based ads, social content, digital assets, user-generated videos, and more.
🏅 The video campaign won Gold at the 2025 American Advertising Awards, Sacramento
⬇️ Scroll to the end to see the great stats on this campaign, and behind the scenes shots
THE PROBLEM
Many Californian families, especially in low-income communities, are bombarded with marketing of sugary beverages. They often lack awareness of the long-term health risks and also lack simple, actionable tools for healthier choices.
HOW WE SOLVED IT
This campaign cuts through glossy sugary-beverage marketing and reveals hidden health risks, while also offering practical tools and healthier alternatives.
Messaging focuses on low-income Latino, Black, and multicultural California families. We partnered with cultural consultants and held focus groups to ensure the messaging was authentic, relevant, and shaped by community insight.
Great stats reveal the success of the campaign
Video
The campaign was planned in a 2-phase approach. The videos produced in phase one focused on sugary-beverages and their hidden health risks. Three videos in three languages ran on Broadcast and as cut-downs on social.
In the second campaign phase, we produced user-generated (UGC) videos highlighting everyday “Healthy Habit Moments” and simple, positive changes. Designed to feel authentic and relatable, more like influencer content than polished ads, the videos helped audiences see themselves in the story. Three aired on broadcast in three languages, with four additional videos adapted for social media.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BEHIND the SCENES
