2002 News Archive
Young Girls Get Beef Message Millions of Times Through Checkoff-Funded Ads and Public Relations
DENVER (November 27, 2002) – Beef messages aimed at kids hit the mark more than 34 million times over the last 18 months as a result of advertising and public relations efforts funded by the beef checkoff. The messages – targeted toward girls 8 to 12 years old – revolved around the great nutritional benefits of beef.
The public relations element of the program resulted in stories appearing in magazines such as Skating, Tiger Beat, GirlsLife, Nickelodeon, Discovery Girls, Seventeen and Science World. Web sites, such as Go-Girl.com, GirlsLife.com, Seventeen.com and TeenFX.com also featured beef information. More than 7 million impressions were made through these efforts.
Advertising in 11 high profile teen and pre-teen publications during the spring and fall of 2002 generated another 27.4 million positive impressions for beef. Through value-added negotiations with the magazines, Web sites popular with young girls featured links to the beef industry’s BurgerTown Web site, resulting in more than 33,500 additional visits to the site.
The stories and ads were made possible through a sponsorship of Olympic figure skating star Sasha Cohen, who spoke out about the inclusion of beef in her diet as well as her belief that beef and exercise are important components of healthy athletic lifestyles. The beef industry’s Joint Youth Information and Education Subcommittee, through the beef checkoff, selected Cohen as its public relations spokesperson in 2001.
Cohen told the publications and Web sites that beef is one of her favorite foods, and that she learned a great deal about how important its nutrients are through her work with the beef industry. She was a star attraction at a beef industry youth public relations program with four top editors in New York City in 2001 and made special appearances for the Texas and Tennessee beef councils.
“This sponsorship worked well for the beef industry,” said Gary Sharp, a beef and dairy producer from Bath, S.D., and chairman of the Joint Youth Information and Education Subcommittee. “Sasha was given an excellent opportunity to share her story about beef and active, athletic lifestyles to a large audience of young girls who look up to her. She fit our needs very well.”
A silver medallist at the 2000 and 2002 U.S. Figure Skating Nationals, the 17-year-old Cohen was fourth in the 2002 Winter Olympics. This year she also won a gold medal at Skate Canada and Trophee Lalique in Paris, and a silver medal at the Cup of Russia.
-###-
Many industry research, education, advertising and promotion programs are funded by beef producers through their $1-per-head checkoff and are produced for the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and state beef councils by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. The national beef checkoff is administered by the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board. This 110-member board is appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to oversee the collection of the $1-per-head checkoff, certify state beef councils, implement the provisions of the federal order establishing the checkoff and evaluate the effectiveness of checkoff programs.
Producer-directed and consumer-focused, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association is the trade association of America’s cattle farmers and ranchers, and the marketing organization for the largest segment of the nation’s food and fiber industry.