Persuasive Health Promotion

Overview

In this ninth lesson of the Healthy Food Truck Challenge, students turn their approved food-truck menu into persuasive promotional material. They analyse how language, evidence, audience, values, hauora, sustainability and the New Zealand Healthy Eating Guidelines can influence food choices, then draft and improve a poster, menu panel or social-media-style promotion.

Learning intentions

• WALT explain how food choices can support taha tinana, taha hinengaro, taha whānau and taha whenua.
• WALT use accurate nutrition and sustainability evidence to promote a menu.
• WALT apply persuasive language and design features for a specific audience.
• WALT make realistic, informed decisions that support individual and collective wellbeing.

Success criteria

• I can identify the audience and purpose of my promotion.
• I can use at least two accurate pieces of evidence about nutrition, hauora or sustainability.
• I can use persuasive language without making exaggerated or misleading health claims.
• I can explain how my promotion supports the wellbeing of people and the environment.

Curriculum links

• Health Education / Nutrition: understanding that knowledge about healthy eating does not always lead to healthy choices.
• Health Education / Practices (Nutrition): analysing how stress, social norms and access influence nutrition choices, and practising realistic decision-making strategies.
• Nutrition: recognising that access, cultural norms, body image and emotional wellbeing influence healthy eating.
• Health promotion and hauora: communicating choices that support personal, social and environmental wellbeing.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–7 min · Hook and connect. Teacher opens with the hook and learning intention slides and displays two contrasting food promotions, asking, “Which one would influence you, and why?” Students make a quick individual choice, then identify persuasive words, images or design features and connect the discussion to their food-truck menu.

2. 7–17 min · Direct teach: persuasive health promotion. Teacher uses the persuasive techniques and evidence slides to model a short promotion for a balanced food-truck meal. Introduce audience, purpose, emotive but respectful language, inclusive wording, call to action, credible evidence and cautious claims such as “provides” or “supports”, rather than “cures” or “guarantees”. Students annotate the model and suggest how it could communicate support for hauora and sustainable practices.

3. 17–25 min · Evidence and planning. Teacher distributes the persuasive promotion planner and revisits each group’s approved menu. Students identify their target audience, select two or three menu benefits, and record evidence linked to food variety, water, minimally processed ingredients, reducing excess sugar or salt, local or seasonal choices, reducing waste, or appropriate packaging. Students also choose a format: poster, menu feature, flyer or digital post.

4. 25–45 min · Create promotional material. Teacher refers to the creation instructions and checklist slides and conferences with groups, checking that claims are accurate, culturally respectful and achievable. Students work in their food-truck teams to draft promotional material, including a clear name or heading, appealing visuals, a call to action, menu details, evidence-based benefits, and a statement linking the choices to hauora and/or sustainability.

5. 45–54 min · Peer feedback and revision. Teacher displays the peer-feedback questions and assigns each group a nearby group for a two-stars-and-a-wish review. Students use the checklist to identify two strengths and one specific improvement, checking: “Is the message clear?”, “Is the evidence believable?”, “Does it avoid judgement about bodies or food choices?”, and “Would the intended audience understand and trust it?” Groups revise their promotion.

6. 54–60 min · Share and exit reflection. Teacher invites two or three groups to share one persuasive feature and one evidence-based claim, then uses the plenary and exit-ticket slide to revisit the learning intentions. Students complete the final section of the reflection and self-assessment section, explaining how their promotion supports hauora, sustainable practices and informed food choices.

Resources

• the Healthy Food Truck persuasive promotion slide deck
• the persuasive promotion planner
• Groups’ approved menus and food-truck briefs
• A3 paper or poster paper
• Coloured pens, pencils and rulers
• Optional devices and design software
• Examples of food advertising or menu promotions
• Peer-feedback checklist

Assessment

• During modelling, listen for students distinguishing persuasive opinion from accurate evidence and check responses to the model promotion.
• Confer with groups during planning and creation, checking audience awareness, realistic claims, links to hauora and sustainable decision-making.
• Collect the worksheet and draft promotion. Use the exit reflection to assess whether students can justify how their menu choices support wellbeing and the environment.

Differentiation

• Provide a word bank and sentence starters such as “Our menu supports taha tinana because…”, “This choice may help reduce…”, and “We chose this because…”.
• Offer a planning conference, a partially completed example and a simple claim-checking prompt for students who need literacy or executive-function support.
• Allow students to record an oral promotion, use speech-to-text, or create a visually led design with reduced written text; pair students strategically and provide quiet working space where needed.
• Extend confident students by requiring them to address a possible barrier such as cost, time, stress or peer influence, and adapt their promotion for two different audiences without changing the evidence.
• Encourage culturally responsive examples and avoid labelling foods or bodies as “good” or “bad”; focus on balance, nourishment, enjoyment, access and context.