SAN FRANCISCO -- At press events on both coasts, the new tagline for the Produce for Better Health Foundation's marketing campaign was rolled out the week of March 19.

Using kids and a chef cooking contest in the backdrop, the new "Fruits & Veggies - More Matters" campaign was launched March 19 at a Safeway store, here, and again March 21 at a Kroger Supermarket in Atlanta.

PBH President and Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Pivonka said that both events went well, and the media coverage was fairly good considering it was clearly a "soft news story." The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention joined the PBH leadership, as well as local health officials, at each location. The press events in those two cities were accompanied by a national press release as well as local events by state departments of health throughout the country.

Ms. Pivonka said that some states held events to coincide with the national launch, while other PBH partners will be holding events over the next couple of weeks. PBH and CDC will hold quarterly events throughout the year to continue with the long phase-in for this new campaign.

The "Fruits & Veggies - More Matters" campaign was announced one year ago at the PBH annual meeting in San Francisco. They used the timing of this year's annual meeting to formally launch the campaign.

Ms. Pivonka said that stakeholders, which include fruit and vegetable industry partners as well as government agencies in all 50 states, have until the end of 2008 to completely switch from the "5 A Day" brand message to the new "More Matters" campaign. PBH, CDC and its partners agreed on the two-year phase-in period to allow these companies and agencies to exhaust their inventory of 5 A Day materials. Ms. Pivonka expects that the vast majority of partners will be using the new message immediately and will certainly have used their inventory of older materials by the end of 2007.

It has been well reported that the switch to More Matters followed much research on the subject indicating that it was a clearer and more accurate message. The 5 A Day campaign, which came into being almost 20 years ago, was too limiting as more research revealed that the correct number of servings for an individual could be as high as 13 per day, with five to nine being average. Consumption studies have also shown that for more than nine out of 10 Americans, eating "more" fruits and vegetables is the right nutritional choice.

In addition, Ms. Pivonka said that the new campaign will allow PBH to concentrate its efforts on trying to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables rather than debating the concept of 5 A Day.

"We spent a lot of time [under the old campaign] determining what a serving was," she said. "Now we can concentrate on increasing consumption."

The PBH executive expects that some consumers will hang on to the 5 A Day message for a long period, as it has been well ingrained for most of the last two decades. But she sees no downside in consumers remembering the 5 A Day campaign. Research shows that most consumers still don't eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

An Internet news search of the "More Matters" campaign revealed that PBH and CDC were receiving quite a bit of news play across the country for the national launch.

Ms. Pivonka said that besides the media that showed up at the two press events, she had done numerous phone interviews with reporters from around the country.

The press events featured kids judging cooking contests, with recipes featuring fruits and vegetables, by some well-known local chefs.