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The Sweety Foods & Games Bicycle Blowout Program

Sweety Foods Bicycle Blowout

The Sweety Foods Bicycle Blowout is high-energy half-hour program produced by Jeff Felts of KEDT-TV, Public Television in Corpus Christi. The program is available to Public Television stations across the United States, and for individual purchase on DVD.

The program seeks promote better health by showing the significant role advertising plays in getting kids to make poor food choices. Through satire, the program demonstrates a few of the techniques food companies use to appeal to the youth market, such as the use of celebrity spokespersons, the inclusion of toy prizes with their products, flashy graphics and peer pressure. It also presents the process of reading food labels to learn nutritional value and how to use that value to make solid consumer choices.

The program is designed to reach children in the range of 3rd to 7th grades. The content of the program and companion website is under the close review of an 18 member advisory board made up of medical and nutritional experts. The program was taped in the High Definition TV format.

The Driscoll Children's Hospital Foundation, Perry & Haas, L.L.P, and The Children's Heart and Health Institute of Texas provided funding for the program.

Concept:

The Sweety Foods and Games Corporation makes a host of food products and video games aimed at children and young adults that do little to enrich their bodies or their minds.

The company has developed a one-time only television game show called the Sweety Foods and Games Bicycle Blowout, hosted by carnival barker-like executive vice president Tad Adman and airing on the popular children's cable network Kid Cuckoo TV. In the show, four kid finalists age 9 through 11 – Kelly, Jill, Milo and Steven – have each won an expensive, limited edition bicycle. Host Adman tells the group that they can walk away with the bicycle or choose a Sweety food or games package of equal value, a la Let's Make a Deal.

With all that in mind, the show proceeds, with Tad tempting each finalist with a Sweety prize package designed around each child's interests. Finalist Steven, whose parents are a trainer and a nutritionist, is the most resistant to the charms of Sweety, while finalist Milo is the most receptive. Kelly and Jill find themselves somewhere in the middle, listening to advice from both opinionated boys. Sweety products, though seem to have the power to lure everyone away from the bike...

Kelly is presented with the choice of a year's worth of Sweety Monster Meals, a new, larger version of Kelly's favorite Sweety fast food, the Combo Meal. She agrees with Steven as he points out how unhealthy it would be to eat so many of the meals, but gives up the bike when Tad points out that Monster Meals also come with larger sized toys.

Jill turns her nose up at a year's worth of Sweety Chug Cola, a syrup-enriched version of her favorite Sweety product. She's almost swayed when Tad has Sweety's Chug Cola spokesperson bring Jill the product – pop singer Brandy Springs, whom Jill adores. When Jill hears that each Chug Cola she receives will give her the chance to win tickets to a Brandy Springs concert, the second finalist decides to give up the bike.

Milo is the next finalist to face a Sweety temptation. His comes in the form of his favorite Sweety product, the Instant Lunch, endorsed and presented to him by his favorite Kid Cuckoo animated character Skip the Shark. Milo, who was the strongest supporter of Sweety Foods, listens for the first time to Steven and rejects the Skip the Shark Instant Lunch, keeping his bike.

Tad keeps Milo on stage for Steven's Sweety prize package. For Steven, it's a year's worth of the seemingly healthy Jump to It energy bars and Recharge sports drink. In addition, Steven is offered a video game system with the new game Nick LeBron's Xtreme Bike Journey, based on Steven's professional biking hero Nick LeBron, who presents the game to Steven personally. For the first time, Steven is tempted.

When Milo is offered the Sweety prize package as well, he is thrilled and tries to convince Steven to drop the bike for the Sweety, too. Steven almost does until he sees the nutrition label on the energy bar and sports drink and realizes they're as unhealthy as a candy bar and a soda. He also catches Milo inadvertently refer to Tad as his uncle, revealing that Milo was not a real game contestant but a Sweety plant, used to sway the other contestants.

Confused, Steven turns to his idol Nick LeBron for his advice on what to do. LeBron drops his loyalty to his Sweety video game namesake and tells Steven the truth – that he'd be better off riding a real bike instead of staying stagnant playing a video game and eating the Sweety "sports" foods. Steven thinks about it and makes up his own mind – he follows the lessons he learned from his family and opts for the healthy choice of the bike over the Sweety.

The show's live audience boos Tad off the stage, soundly rejecting Sweety foods and games. Tad is then fired by company president Mr. Sweety for not being able to sway all the children to Sweety as he had promised. Steven, meanwhile, tries out his new bike outside, with the approving television audience looking on.

A DVD of the program with bonus segments will be available. The additional segments include a kid-friendly lesson on how to read nutrition labels, a segment on healthy grocery shopping for families, a discussion with a leading expert on childhood obesity and diabetes.