SALUD Campaign

The SALUD campaign is an energetic and culturally-sensitive campaign designed to increase awareness of healthy eating among Latinos. Recent immigrant families are more likely to have fresh fruits and vegetables in their house than immigrants that have been in the US for ten years or longer. The campaign reminds families that their traditional diets included a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.

This mass media campaign included radio public service announcements in Spanish and English, billboards featuring Latino celebrities, bus stop displays, and newspaper and magazine advertisements. The radio public service announcements were targeted specifically to children and pregnant women. "Fruta" targeted children and was designed to demonstrate that fruit is sweet, natural and nutritious. "Breakfast is Brain Food" contained an animated cereal box which explained to a child how a nutritious breakfast is essential for learning and development. "Baby in training” featured a baby in the womb talking to his mother, emphasizing the importance of consuming foods abundant in folic acid on a regular basis.

To increase the awareness of healthy eating in Latino communities and deliver targeted nutrition information.

A convenience sample of people who were likely to have been in contact with the SALUD campaign were administered a survey six months to one year after the campaign’s inception. The survey found that twenty percent of the participants correctly identified folic acid as the nutrient capable of preventing neural tube defects and 36% reported ever hearing about folic acid. The recall of this specific piece of the campaign shows that the intended audience is being exposed to the campaign, registering the message and remembering the information.