Bite Back 2030 - It's Not Your Fault You Can't Resist

Bite Back 2030 is a youth-led movement campaigning for a fairer food system. With the support of young people across the UK, they aim to challenge how the food industry markets unhealthy products to teenagers. But to grow their movement, they needed to break through a noisy digital landscape and reach a tough audience - Gen Z.

The problem? Healthy eating campaigns often fail to engage young people, either by being too preachy or simply stating what they already know. BiteBack didn’t want to lecture teenagers, they wanted to empower them by revealing how their choices are being manipulated by powerful, profit-driven forces.

Rather than telling young people what to eat, we set out to expose how the food industry engineers their decisions. Research showed that most teenagers were already aware of the health risks of poor diets. What they didn’t realise was the extent to which brands manipulate choice through marketing, placement, and psychological cues.

To provoke outrage and agency, we needed teenagers to discover this manipulation for themselves. Our solution? A bold social experiment designed to trick and then awaken the audience.

We created a fake fast food brand with all the bells and whistles: slick branding, a crave-worthy menu, influencer tie-ins, and a full social media rollout. It was everything Gen Z is used to seeing, but all entirely fabricated.

Trusted influencers began posting about this mystery brand, sparking intrigue and desire. Then, just as the campaign reached peak engagement, we flipped the script.

We revealed the entire thing had been a setup, a mirror held up to the tactics used by the food industry every day. The same influencers who promoted the fake brand returned to explain how easily they themselves were complicit in the manipulation. The campaign didn’t scold; it empowered. We gave young people the tools to question, challenge, and push back.