AMERICAN DIABETES ASSOCIATION: SUGAR-FREE COTTON CANDY ATTRACTS WIDESPREAD ATTENTION

The American Diabetes Association sought ideas for attracting more visitors to its booth at the Minnesota State Fair. But let’s face it, learning about a disease on a hot August afternoon isn’t as much fun as corn dogs and stuffed teddy bears.

So we took a State Fair staple – cotton candy – and used an unexpected, tongue-in-cheek approach to educating people about diabetes. We knew regular cotton candy was made of only two ingredients – sugar and the rolled-up paper stick – so we made our version sugar free and invited people to stop by for free samples.

When the paper stick was unrolled, it contained information about diabetes symptoms, dangers and so on. Print and broadcast media from around Minnesota and beyond ate up the idea of getting “a treat that won’t fill you up, but will fill you in.”

Yes, the thousands of people who swarmed around the State Fair booth knew their free treat was only a piece of paper. But they liked being in on the fun, and the organization liked getting serious information into their hands.