TSET’s New Campaign Empowers Oklahoma Teens to Make Healthier Food Choices
“Food Truth” uses humor to educate and empower.
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) is introducing two new videos focused on youth nutrition through the TSET Healthy Youth Initiative. “Food Truth” will be live on social media channels through mid-May, teaching teens how misleading snack labels can be. The new videos will be released Feb. 24.
“Helping teens make healthier choices starts with meeting them where they are,” said Julie Bisbee, TSET’s executive director. “Through engaging content and relatable messaging, this message reveals the truths behind unhealthy foods and empowers young Oklahomans to take charge of their health.”
These videos are from Swap Up, a campaign focused on educating Oklahoma teens on healthy nutrition as part of the TSET Healthy Youth Initiative.
“Food Truth” features two videos that take a playful approach to its topic by spoofing classic detective noir shows. In both, teens interrogate breakfast foods, highlighting added sugars and artificial ingredients. The spots encourage teens to choose real fruit instead, with no labels and only natural sugars.
When shown to Oklahoma teens, participants said they found the messaging believable, with many participants reporting motivation to look closer at food labels to better understand what they are eating.
“[The video] shows us the better option. People will say it's good in vitamins or minerals and everything, whenever it barely has any of that. You always have to go deeper and find out if what you’re eating is actually good for you or not,” said one teen participant.
To view “Food Truth” and other youth tobacco and obesity prevention messages, visit the TSET Healthy Youth Initiative website at TSETHealthyYouth.com. Additionally, TSET has free healthy youth resources for educators and health care providers available for order at TSETHealthyYouth.com/order.
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The TSET Healthy Youth Initiative empowers Oklahoma youth to improve health outcomes for themselves and future generations. The initiative includes statewide public health education messaging, a youth-led advocacy program and character-building to reduce tobacco use and obesity. The initiative also gives parents resources to support their children in maintaining or developing healthy habits for a lifetime. Visit TSETHealthyYouth.com to learn more.
The Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) serves as a partner and bridge builder for organizations shaping a healthier future for all Oklahomans. TSET provides leadership at the intersections of health by working with local coalitions and initiatives across the state, cultivating innovative and life-changing research and working across public and private sectors to develop, support, implement and evaluate creative strategies to take advantage of emerging opportunities to improve the public’s health. To learn more, go to Oklahoma.gov/TSET.
TSET – Better Lives Through Better Health