Exclusive: LACA's new TV ad promoting school meals goes live

CatererSearch has an exclusive preview of an ad by the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA), which is due to hit TV screens for the first time on GMTV next Monday (11 September).

The two-week campaign, which is believed to have cost about £120,000, aims to reverse falling uptake by "improving perceptions that have prevailed among parents since the Jamie Oliver programmes".

The ad coincides with the start of School Meals Week and will be screened during ITV's breakfast show and on several satellite channels.

The commercial was shot entirely on location at a Hertfordshire primary school and thanks Jamie Oliver for bringing the issue of unhealthy school meals to the Government's attention.

LACA Chair Irene Carroll said: "We needed to harness the same powerful visual influence of television that had, through the Jamie Oliver programmes, so successfully instilled such a poor picture of schools meals in parents' minds."

Uptake is estimated to have fallen by an average of 12% across England since Jamie's School Dinners Aired in spring 2005.

By Tom Bill

E-mail your comments to [Tom Bill](mailto:tom.bill@rbi.co.uk?subject=Exclusive: Watch a preview of LACA's new TV ad promoting school meals) here.

Get your copy of Caterer and Hotelkeeper every week -