Green Giant Announces "Giant Difference Campaign" Aimed at Diet Cheaters

Brand Teams Up with Bravo's Dr. Venus Nicolino of "L.A. Shrinks" to Help Diet Cheaters Get More with Veggies

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Sep 19, 2013, 09:00 ET

MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Have you ever thought about eating vegetables as a delicious way to cheat on your diet? You might now. A new survey commissioned by Green Giant found that one in five Americans are currently on a diet, yet 34 percent view dieting as stressful and dieters are likely to be hungry more than half of the time when watching what they eat. This may lead to cheating – four in ten Americans would cheat on a diet at least daily! To address this issue, Green Giant launched a new campaign to help those wanting to lose weight and turn the tables about how they think about vegetables. The brand is partnering with Dr. Venus Nicolino, better known as Dr. V, from the hit Bravo TV show "L.A. Shrinks," to coach a handful of diet cheaters as they try to kick their annoying diet cheating habits to the curb.

Green Giant Announces "Giant Difference Campaign" Aimed at Diet Cheaters. Brand Teams Up With Bravo's Dr. Venus Nicolino of "L.A. Shrinks" to Help Diet Cheaters Get More With Veggies. (PRNewsFoto/Green Giant) (PRNewsFoto/GREEN GIANT)

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130919/NY82669 )

Dr. V and Green Giant
The cheating therapy portion of the campaign kicks off on September 24, 2013 and runs through October 22, 2013. Green Giant will chronicle the journey of 10 women who each have a quirky diet cheating habit as they blog each week about the progress they make with the help of life consultant and relationship coach, Dr. V. Known for her straight-forward manner and her sass, Dr. V will provide advice, encouragement and homework each week. The goal of the program will be to help each woman's relationship with dieting get back on track so they can feel good about cheating—when it's with vegetables.

"Dieting is an emotional process full of restrictions, so cheating on your diet often means there's something you need to get more of," said Dr. V. "I'm looking forward to working with these women to figure out what's really driving their cheating impulses, and how eating more Green Giant vegetables can help."

Make Weight Loss Delicious and Fun
The Giant Difference website is now live at www.greengiant.com/giantdifference. The site features several helpful tools and resources. The Lose It! app features a way to make healthier choices with a "veggie challenge." Participants who download the app can set up a personalized weight loss plan, connect the latest apps and devices, and start losing weight. Site visitors can also find tips from SparkPeople.com—a Green Giant partner—as well as delicious recipes that make veggies the star of your meals.

One fascinating feature on the Giant Difference website is the comparison of a 100 calorie portion of vegetables against a 100 calorie portion of classic diet cheat foods. For dieters that like to get more out of their meals in regards to portion size, a heaping bowl of vegetables can be a delicious and satisfying option.

"Green Giant realizes that weight management is a constant battle, and one that affects emotional health as well," said John Stockman, Green Giant associate director. "Along with our fantastic partner Dr. V, we're providing real—yet humorous—inspiration and encouragement for people to stick with a healthy lifestyle and achieve their weight loss goals."

"Caught Green-Handed" YouTube Videos
Dieting isn't always a fun topic, so Green Giant aimed to change that with a series of lighthearted videos on its YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/user/JollyGreenGiantTV. The three videos, titled "Caught Green-Handed," focus on the humor of diet deprivation and feeling hungry, and the imperceptions that eating a big portion of vegetables is cheating on your diet.

About Green Giant
Green Giant started out in Le Sueur, Minnesota, as the Minnesota Valley Canning Company in 1903, when some 11,750 cases of white cream-style corn were sold in the company's first year. For the past 100 years, the Giant's valley is where fresh and great-tasting vegetables are grown and picked at the peak of perfection. Green Giant has been implementing sustainability into the business since 1929 when the company introduced vacuum-pack technology, and Green Giant has plans to continue to become "greener" in the future. The brand is now part of General Mills, Inc.

About Dr. Venus Nicolino
Sharp-tongued with a mind to match, Dr. Venus Nicolino (aka, Dr. V) certainly serves up the sass, but when it comes to her clients, Dr. V's code is one of genuine kindness and recognition in the transformative powers of empathy. Using her compassionate understanding of the human condition with an occasional dash of profanity, she tackles the obstacles and joys that make up life. A blue-collar girl at heart, Dr. V now resides in Bel Air with her husband Matthew, their two sons, ages 3 and 5, and their two nephews, ages 5 and 7, who are now under their permanent guardianship.

Survey Methodology
The Green Giant Dieting Survey was conducted by Kelton between September 9th and September 16th, 2013 among 1,000 nationally representative Americans ages 18 and over, using an email invitation and an online survey. Quotas are set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the entire U.S. population ages 18 and over.

Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results.

In this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 3.1 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample. The margin of error for any subgroups will be slightly higher.

SOURCE Green Giant