The Milk Motto

 
During the Fall semester, the Community Nutrition class was assigned the task of creating marketing materials to deliver a nutrition message to a specific target audience.  Gabby Corvington, Linda Nguyen and Taranjeet Singh created this fun music video to encourage teen girls to drink milk.  Follow them on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/themilkmotto  and learn more about their creative process in the interview with the filmmakers below.

What gave you the idea to shoot a music video? 

Taranjeet: The idea to shoot a music video was a result of a lot of brainstorming. At first, we thought of ways to connect with preteens and teens.

Gabby:  We kept thinking okay what do teen girls like? Teens like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and music!

Linda: We stumbled upon a website that rapped about calcium, and it clicked with us that we should create our own.

Gabby: We decided to focus on making a song about teen girls and how they need to get more calcium in their diets.

What inspired you?

Gabby: I knew that the acronym “YOLO” (you only live once) was a popular saying among teens ever since the song “The Motto” by a rapper named Drake came out. Because this is so popular we decided to focus on making a remix out of the song, which was very fun! I like making remixes to songs. We knew we had to make it fun because if you are too serious, you won’t be able to get a message across to this group. Linda did an awesome job editing the video!

Taranjeet: In today’s world, hip-hop and fashion are “in” while things such as osteoporosis and other health problems don’t really cross a teenager’s mind. Overall, this idea of connecting with our audience and making it “cool” were the biggest inspirations to shoot this music video!

How did you choose the locations used to film it?

Gabby: Linda, Taranjeet and I were brainstorming locations of where teens would hang out. We thought about malls or the Delmar Loop but did not really want to film at either of those spots. Linda knew of a graffiti wall right here in St. Louis, which was huge and very colorful! It was perfect to go with our rap song.

Linda: I was inspired by my own hip-hop dance team, XQuizit (XQ), that I was a part of for the past 3 years at SLU.  “The Motto” was actually a song that we had danced to! While in my reminiscent state, I thought of the amazing mile-long graffiti wall, which was where XQ had done a photo shoot. I thought this seemed very appropriate for such a song–it is colorful, fun, youthful and very urban/hip.  I don’t know about everyone else, but when I see graffiti walls, I automatically think hip-hop/rap-scenes. Gabby decided to throw in the Schnucks location specifically because we had it in our lyrics and wanted visuals.

Did the project give you any insights into working with teens?  

Gabby: I realized that when working with teens you have to be updated on what is current.  I feel like my group had an advantage because we aren’t that many years away from the adolescent age.

Linda: I had to revert back 5 years and imagine what I cared most about. I was also able to observe how my teenage niece is now. Her life and friends revolve around “beauty” and “fashion”. These girls don’t really care about the future of their bones or even know what “osteoporosis” means.  They are all about the here and now. Working on this project, I was reminded how much, at this age, your friends and surroundings impact your development of self-identity. Teenage girls really care about their outward appearance and the habits/hobbies they pick up or how they think are highly influenced by friends, school and the media; thus, we wanted to focus on the fact that getting calcium now helps with their growth and supports the many changes they experience.

Did the project shape your view of dietetics?

Gabby: This did shape my view of dietetics because I started to see how creative you can be in this field! You can get an important message across but still make things fun at the same time. I am so thankful to have a major where I am able to create and turn ideas into realities.

Linda: For me, this media project demonstrated the importance of personalizing dietary goals.  It is our job to identify our target audience (or in clinical settings: client/patient) and what they are concerned about, not what we think they are concerned about.  We want to be patient-centered! The most effective way to carry out a message for any behavior change is to increase perceived benefits and tailor the message to their interests.  Sometimes all it takes is a little research, and creativity.

Taranjeet: I think this was one of those experiences that really led me to believe that nutrition and dietetics is a fun, creative, and innovative field that can really reach out to various audiences. By knowing how to get across the message, everyone can be able to have the tools needed to implement a healthy lifestyle.

What was the most fun aspect?

Gabby: The most fun aspect was shooting the video. It was 70 degrees outside and beautiful! Linda brought her niece who brought along two other friends and they were all in high school so it was awesome to have actual teen girls in our video. I think what is even more fun now is the responses we are getting. People seem to really like our idea and the video itself. We have received a lot of positive comments. Even though this was just a project, I would like to keep the Facebook page up. I hope it actually does encourage teen girls to get more calcium!

Taranjeet: I think the entire process was an amazing experience but I love the actual shooting of the video the most. All of us, including the teenagers, had tons of fun with carrying dairy products around at odd places, walking by the graffiti wall, dancing and continuously having to re-shoot since we were all laughing. Our group can easily say that it was one of the best projects that we have created in our undergraduate years!

Linda:  Everything. I think we had a lot of fun with every process, from lyric-writing and brainstorming ideas on paper to actually bringing it to life. Creating fliers and editing videos are some things that I’ve always had the knack for; hence, my interest in marketing as a post-graduate study. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to put my creativity and marketing skills to the test. It definitely fuels my profound interest to invest in a nutrition and marketing degree in the future.

Gabby, Linda and Taranjeet are seniors in Nutrition and Dietetics.

Interview by Jessica Moeller-Gaa, SLUDA secretary