Amerifit Nutrition Vitaball Distribution Backed With $5 Mil. In Ad Support
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
Amerifit Nutrition is supporting its Vitaball vitamin gumball with a $5 mil. advertising campaign that launched during the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif. March 7-10
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Amerifit Nutrition is supporting its Vitaball vitamin gumball with a $5 mil. advertising campaign that launched during the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif. March 7-10. The campaign will include print ads with the slogans: "A whole new way to take your vitamins"; and "When was the last time your kids reminded you to give them their vitamins." The ads are slated to appear in family magazines such as Parenting, Amerifit said. Vitaball also will be supported with national TV spots and a 1 coupon giveaway at the product's Web site, www.vitaball.com. LaRossa Isidore Group (New York) is the ad agency of record for the firm. The vitamin gumball, which provides "100% of 11 essential vitamins," began shipping in December and is available in food, drug and mass outlets including Wal-Mart, Walgreens and GNC. Vitaball is available in four flavors - cherry, grape, watermelon and bubble gum (2 (Also see "Amerifit" - Pink Sheet, 16 Jul, 2001.), p. 5). Product labeling recommends adults and children over five chew one vitamin gumball per day close to mealtime. A 36-count container retails for roughly $7.99, the firm said. Amerifit noted Vitaball is located next to other multivitamins on store shelves, instead of alongside regular bubble gums. However, the gumballs appear to be positioned as a food, since labeling contains a Nutrition Facts panel but has no Supplement Facts information. According to its Web site, Vitaball uses a patented delivery technology that "ensures effective release and complete dissolution of...vitamins" after five to 10 minutes. The product "consists of a gum center that contains mostly water-soluble vitamins surrounded by a candy-coat shell containing mostly fat-soluble vitamins," the site notes. "As saliva is produced in the mouth while chewing the gum, the chemical bond between the gum and the vitamins...begin[s] to break down enabling the release of the vitamins." "Bioavailability of the vitamins is related to their absorption through the mucus membranes in the mouth directly into the bloodstream, as well as in the small intestines when saliva is swallowed during chewing," the Web site says. |