+ VEGETABLE VENDETTA

The AI-powered uprising of the humble produce

Vegetable Vendetta* is a tool to shift the perception of vegetables from mere side-dishes or obligatory foods to exciting, desirable components of a fulfilling lifestyle through AI generated food marketing content.

*started as Culinary Journey

INNOVATION RELEVANCE

Emotional appeal is considered the most powerful marketing tool in shaping food choices. That makes it the most powerful marketing tool to shift food choices as well. Emotional connections can override rational decision-making processes, leading consumers to choose products based on feelings rather than nutritional value or price. Brands that successfully associate their products with positive emotions, memories, or experiences often see strong consumer loyalty and repeat purchases. Large brands bringing processed or sugar containing foods to the market have the largest budgets to develop emotionally appealing content to successfully market their products. For example, leveraging childhood memories, offering sources of comfort during stressful times, bringing people together, luxury experiences, adventure or identity are all well proven marketing techniques to influence consumer food choices. However, healthy foods, like fresh vegetables, are not promoted in such ways, and therefore do not have these associations. This is because the brands producing these products do not have the marketing power to compete. As a result, vegetables, even though the most important part of a healthy diet, are seen as side-dishes or obligatory, instead of exciting and desirable. By changing this, consumers can shift their food choices.

The techniques are known, the examples many. Until recently, it required deep pockets to produce this attractive marketing content. But, with the introduction of advanced video generation AI models, this is no longer the case. By training a model on proven techniques and examples, it is now possible to generate high quality marketing content significant cheaper and very quickly. This offers an opportunity to vegetable brands to enter the food marketing arena.

WHAT DOES IT DO

The current version can recognize 2 vegetable types (potato and broccoli) and is trained on 4 emotional marketing techniques: luxury (exclusive desire), bringing people together (social values), artistic, retro (childhood memories). It is an intuitive system, designed as a desktop system that can be placed in any office as a stand-alone marketing content creator. By placing the food under the camera, the system starts generating the emotionally appealing marketing content. It is in a prototype stage of development, and will require additional development on all components (design of the machine, generation of the content, interaction with the human to name a few) before it could be used in practice.

ART RELEVANCE

In Jeroen van der Most ‘s “Vegetable Vendetta,” part of Hungry EcoCities, AI becomes the great equalizer in food marketing: our “Robin Hood”. This installation arms humble vegetables with the seductive power of luxury brands and fast-food giants. Visitors scan produce, unleashing AI-generated commercials that blend the digital and physical, turning broccoli into coveted stars. It’s a playful yet pointed critique of our broken food system, where processed foods overshadow nature’s bounty. By democratizing marketing powers, the project envisions a future where AI levels the playing field, empowering small producers. “Vegetable Vendetta” challenges us to reconsider our relationship with food, technology, and the power structures that shape our choices.

TEAM

Artist: Jeroen van der Most 

Studio: EatThis

Art-driven innovation: In4Art

Science: KU Leuven

The HungryEcoCities project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement 101069990.