According to Circana market research, 51% of consumers identified food and beverage choices as the top contributors to their health and wellbeing.
The U.S. population is also changing: Where the median age 25 years ago was a bit over 35, today, it’s 39. “We have an older population that is trying to figure out, ‘How can I live longer?’” she said.
Generation X—now aged 46 to 61—are in their peak earning years. NFL viewership also skews heavily to the 55 and over crowd, according to S&P Global. Little wonder, then, that advertisers are paying more attention to Gen X, who don’t just control $5 trillion in domestic spending power but are changing their eating habits for the healthier.
“Gen X has cut back on its alcohol [to favor] a lot of health-driven products,” said Chuck Byers, who teaches marketing at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business. “Gen X is becoming more like Gen Z in that they’re being health conscious.”
MAHA on the mind
Another factor prompting a health-conscious populace is the inescapability of public health in the news.
Since taking the job of Health and Human Services Secretary last February, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has led his “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) crusade, bringing his divisive vaccine skepticism to the fore, resurrecting the debate over the disputed link between acetaminophen and autism, and pushing for the elimination of artificial food dyes.
According to Ella Hudson, head of consumer and macro forecasting for WGSN Insight, such “cultural flashpoints” have amplified conversations around nutrition, ingredients, and health.
“These debates are divisive, but they have had a unifying effect in one key way: They have pushed health awareness beyond core wellness consumers and into the mainstream,” she said.
So much so that topics like avoiding constipation—perhaps odd banter for a Super Bowl party—is the theme of Raisin Bran’s ad.
“Even as consumers are focusing more on gut health, 95% of Americans still don’t get enough fiber,” WK Kellogg’s chief growth officer Doug VandeVelde told ADWEEK in a statement, “which is why bringing Kellogg’s Raisin Bran to the Big Game—a platform with the scale to match the size of the opportunity—makes sense.”
