We need to exercise more and eat healthier. The desire to help all Dutch people live healthier lives is high on the agenda. And that is visible: fitfluencers are having a heyday, and marketers are promoting healthy choices much more often. But now that attention to a healthy lifestyle is growing, there is more dissatisfaction about misleading marketing and unreliable fitness influencers.
Our supermarkets are also experiencing this. With the AH protein bars and Jumbo protein shakes, supermarkets want to respond to the trend of fanatical sports. NOS notes that because of this 'growth market', supermarkets are increasingly filling their shelves with protein-rich products or sports supplements. Experts are critical to NOS about the marketing and health claims of these types of products.
For example, some protein-enriched products contain no more protein than the normal version, says nutritionist Josette van Toor. Moreover, the majority of recreational athletes already consume sufficient protein in their daily diet. Supplements with a high caffeine content, which are also available in supermarkets, can be harmful if used incorrectly and lead to palpitations.
The influence of some fitfluencers is even more harmful. They present young people with an unhealthy ideal image and turn it into a revenue model. It A.D highlights the phenomenon bigorexia: the increasingly common disorder that focuses on excessive training, nutrition and extreme fixation on the perfect muscular body. 'You see so many people online with super muscular bodies. As a young person you are enormously influenced by what you see," an expert told the newspaper.
The dissatisfaction about misleading marketing claims and fitfluencers prompted childhood friends Mark de Boer and Harro Schwencke to found Upfront in 2020. Their startup sporting nutrition company would do things radically differently. Upfront's slogan: 'what's sincere wins.'
As a statement, Upfront puts the ingredients and nutritional values of the products on the front of the packaging and does not make any health claims. They want to combat deception in the food industry with complete transparency about their products and business operations. It's a success. Their sports nutrition products are spread across supermarkets in the Netherlands and Belgium and they have more than a quarter of a million followers online.
Upfront's radically transparent marketing strategy is successful because it fits in seamlessly with a growing social dissatisfaction about unreliable fitfluencers and misleading marketing. That is the same social sensitivity that is central to our view of communication: issue thinking. The lesson of Upfront? Social sensitivity pays off.
