OAK BROOK, Ill. -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture last week unveiled the next generation of the food pyramid--now in an easily digestible dinner-plate shape (www.choosemyplate.gov).
The new design aims to be a quick and simple reminder for busy parents and others bombarded with nutritional information. I'm afraid it might be too simple.
It's easy to be a critic, especially of an uphill battle such as getting Americans to eat better. But there are better initiatives in the USDA's arsenal that make me believe they should scrap the idea of an icon altogether and stick to its more actionable ideas.
[image-nocss]The visual criticisms are plenty. Is it supposed to be a pie graph? If so, what's up with the dairy section? What do the colors mean? Beyond holding it next to my dinner plate each night to make sure they match, how can I constructively use this image? How can retailers or manufacturers? School foodservice directors or hospital nutritionists?
The last rendition of the food pyramid was utterly confusing. This one is the other end of the spectrum--overly simplified.
But there are other, more useful things the USDA is doing with this new launch. It's created a multi-year calendar of one action-prompting message at a time, starting with "make half your plate fruits and vegetables." So the agency will focus on that singular message and market that in different ways for a month or two before moving on to the next one.
This may be a governmental initiative, and it may be altruistic in nature. But it's all about marketing, and it has to be actionable.
Change is coming in how America eats. Not only because of government initiatives and wellness-minded entrepreneurs but also because of consumers themselves. But if the government wants to influence change, it needs to focus on methods that parents, operators, manufacturers and individuals can take on with interest and ease. A static icon, as simple as you make it, just doesn't do it.
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