Health Campaign Gets Sexy With Ashanti Video And Interactive Hashtag #DrinkUpAshanti

Healthy eating and anti-obesity advocates lament the fact that the healthier product often lacks the sizzle — and definitely the marketing — that junk food employs to appeal to young minds. The sugary cereal boxes bear the most familiar licensed characters, while fruits and vegetables go unadorned.

A new campaign by the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), put together with Y&R and VML New York, aims to rectify this imbalance and make water sexy and cool.

The main vehicle for this message is a unique video by Grammy-winning pop star Ashanti, who has previously given her support to the non-profit organization. She explains the concept in an introductory video appearing on the microsite DrinkUpAshanti.com, telling viewers she’s releasing a “dehydrated” version of her new single, Let’s Go.

Fans can bring the video to its full richness of sound and color by tweeting and tagging Instagram posts with the hashtag #DrinkUpAshanti, thereby “hydrating” the video with yummy yummy water.

The video’s director, Carl Addy, says, “What I like about this campaign is that it’s not dictating to people what they need to be doing. In fact, it’s doing something totally different. It’s trying to intrigue them into unraveling the narrative in this music video. You’re getting people to explore its meaning.”

Indeed, in the video that people see at the start, Ashanti’s voice is thin, and she’s surrounded by mostly darkness and shadows.

Producers made multiple versions of the video, and progressively richer versions will be released as the hashtag activity goes up to 100,000. A couple of hours before the time of this writing, the campaign’s dedicated Twitter account, @URH2O, said fans were getting closer to being able to see a new version:

Of course, it helped that the artist herself promoted the campaign through her social media presences:

Reaction to the campaign on Twitter was quite positive, with tweeps encouraging others to use the hashtag and hydrate the video:

Besides all the social action, a consumer PR campaign being undertaken by Rogers & Cowan has already gotten the campaign mentioned in media outlets like Parade Magazine and on a number of local TV stations.

About The Author

Pamela Parker

Pamela Parker is Research Director at Third Door Media's Content Studio, where she produces Martech Intelligence Reports and other in-depth content for digital marketers in conjunction with Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, MarTech Today and Digital Marketing Depot. Prior to taking on this role at TDM, she served as Content Manager, Senior Editor and Executive Features Editor. Parker is a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since its beginning. She's a former managing editor of ClickZ and has also worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.