Monday, October 1, 2012

Healthier Halloween


Los Angeles Costume Swap will be giving away  Mr.Halloweenster Saves the Day books at our October events. 

Healthier Halloween 

By Healthier Halloween

Healthier Halloween is a new entertainment-based campaign encouraging children to choose healthier alternatives to candy.  Its official mascot is Mr. Halloweenster the kids Halloween hero.

Mr. Halloweenster is the lead character in Mr. Halloweenster Saves the Day a short animated children’s film (YouTube) and storybook.  The character and story were created by Noam Kugelmass, a parent and social entrepreneur, who lives in Philadelphia and conceived Mr. Halloweenster as an entertaining kids Halloween hero with a message: Halloween isn’t just about candy; the real fun comes from creativity and imagination, wearing costumes and being silly. 

Healthier Halloween builds on Mr. Halloweenster’s message by encouraging children and their families to consider healthier treat alternatives to candy such as fruit leather, dried cranberries, no-salt pretzels, raisins and granola bars; treats without artificial ingredients, and with less fat, salt or sugar compared to most candy.

The Healthier Halloween campaign is being piloted this year through two venues:

·         On-line via a Facebook Contest in which families submit Halloween videos, recipes and pictures in exchange for prizes including three grand prizes of a supply of healthier treats for +100 trick-or-treaters

·         In Philadelphia at the Smith Memorial Playground & Playhouse annual Halloween event, October 27, 20012 where Mr. Halloweenster will appear in-person and give away a variety of healthier treats donated by Brown’s ShopRite (Parkside) along with t-shirts and copies of his book.

Recent research shows that children can be influenced to choose healthier food when prompted by their heroes or role models.  Healthier Halloween’s goal is to serve as an effective influence on children’s attitudes about Halloween and what they choose for treats any time of year.  It intends to serve as a working example of how children’s fictional heroes can positively influence their eating behavior, as described in the article “What would Batman eat?:  priming children to make healthier fast food choices” (Pediatric Obesity, Volume 7, Issue 2, pages 121–123, April 2012)


Healthier Halloween will expand in 2013 through partnerships with consumer goods manufacturers, supermarkets and other businesses and non-profit organizations that want to encourage healthier choices for children.

Additional Information:


No comments:

Post a Comment