KIND Bars

Around campus these last two weeks, I have heard time and time again about the new "KIND" bars. Last week I made a post talking about if the goal and mission of KIND was realistic or if it was just a poorly set up idea to make money and sell granola bars. I truly believe that it has a good mission behind it and that it has the potential to make a real difference in the ONU community. After making
the post, I was keeping an eye out to actually see KIND bars people acting on their goals. Sure enough, a day later I was perusing through my Instagram timeline and found a post by Megan Cottongim. Megan is a PR major here on campus and is on the team for KIND bars. In the video, there is a woman standing in front of the entire football team and she is leading them through what appears to be a stretching exercise. All of the big, tough, sweaty football players were following the actions of a thin, petite woman and the funny part was the football players were feeling a workout from the stretching and bending. The caption of the video was:

Teaching Ohio Northern University's football team some #KINDbears exercises to be KIND to their bodies. Thank you, KIND snacks for putting together a national campaign for my team and I to help build awareness among students that KIND snacks are the perfect snack for both health and taste. Want to join our team's mission to bring healthy living into ONU's campus community? Post a selfie or a brief description on Twitter and Instagram about how you live a healthy life, both in exercise and in appetite. Also include the brand's social handle (@KINDSnacks) and hashtag (#KINDbears) Thank you! (@smileitsmegannn/Instagram).

KIND bars: Can they do their job?

Whenever I see a company or organization try to make a global difference through a campaign, I always try to "dumb down" their mission statement and see if it is believable or not. For example, some people thought that the campaign by McDonald's of "Pay with lovin'" was a good idea, but I can personally rebut that campaign. Every time I went to the McDonald's in Ada, I was never once greeted with "lovin'".  I understand; Ada isn't always the most loving town when it comes to employees at McDonald's, but they still represent the brand of McDonald's and their mission statement. In my opinion, McDonald's missing statement was faulty and was not put into action at all of their locations. Now, on campus here at ONU, there is a new campaign being put into action by some students. It is called "KIND bars". When I first heard about the campaign, I thought I would be going to the Regal Beagle and seeing everyone in there being kind and appreciative of each other. Then after looking into the campaign of the KIND bars, I found out it was granola bar and the bars came in different flavors. According to the team behind KIND bars, "KIND is a brand that not only makes wholesome and  delicious foods, but is focused on making the world a little kinder- one act and one snack at a time." The ingredients in the bars are said to be gluten-free and non GMO (Genetically modified organisms). The healthy and organic image of KIND bars gives me a good notion of their actions and "work behind the scenes" if you will. The only thing that concerns me  with their campaign is how do they plan to get these bars to actually get results. Make the world a little kinder- one act and one snack at a time. The campaign information says there is a foundation named KIND Causes. The program helps people grant their socially impactful ideas to life through $10,000 grants monthly. The KIND bar campaign does have some serious points that make them legitimate, but getting a granola bar to make people happy and spread the kindness just seems a little far fetched. Even still, I see promise in this campaign and just because something is far fetched, doesn't mean it is impossible.