Halloween Candy Buy Back Program
Across the country kids will be giving up their candy in droves this Halloween as various “Cash for Candy” promotions kick into full gear.
Dr. Chris Kammer, AAOSH president and all-around good guy, came up with the idea a few years back and it has spread across the country as hundreds of dental offices are now participating in the effort to get candy off the street and out of the mouths of our youngest citizens.
True to form, Dr. Kammer has been featured many times on local and national television and many of the clips are available today which a quick search on YouTube will attest. His efforts at organizing this annual tradition has collected tons of the sweet stuff which has found its way to American service men stations abroad and defending our country. His program can be viewed at www.HalloweenCandyBuyBack.com.
Interestingly, the troops use most of it to befriend the “locals” and to obtain information that is useful in defending themselves and those they serve. With childhood caries, tooth decay, obesity and related medical problems on the rise, Halloween Candy Buy Back sounds like a great if not timely idea.
In honoring Dr. Kammer’s efforts I joined up a few years back and then expanded it into my local area recruiting other health professionals to join with me in the effort. It is now something that is looked forward to each year by our local group – so much so that we put up our own local promotion web sitewww.OperationCashForCandy.com.
In ‘localizing’ the promotion, we were successful in getting media attention including full-page newspaper articles, hours of radio public service announcements and local radio talk-show time, and many TV appearances in both the local morning shows and the evening news – all free! Plus - the endodontist office in our project who advertises on the radio, donated a month’s worth of ads to the promotion.
These promotions create natural opportunities to not only create public relations and marketing opportunities, but also to provide a chance to help educate the public about Oral-Systemic Healthcare issues. Furthermore, when organized as I’ve done it, it provides unique opportunities to further build networking opportunities with existing and prospective referral partners.
Plus – it’s just darn fun!
It may be a little late to do something this year, but it’s not too late to start preparing for next year. Go towww.HalloweenCandyBuyBack.com and join up and start learning how you can make a difference in your own community and perhaps also learn how to take advantage of the public relations opportunities it can present. These promotions take a little time to set up and figure out. There are some logistics and lead time required to prepare press releases, get the decorations, etc – so start thinking about putting this in the mix for next year.
The www.OperationCashForCandy.com program is my effort to localize the promotion and to strategically involve existing and potential referral sources in the project. If you are going to take it to this other level, it necessarily involves a little more footwork to organize it, create the marketing plan, work up a budget and get everyone on the same page.
Kudos to Dr. Kammer for coming up with a brilliant idea and inspiring us all. A quick Google or YouTube search will showcase more of his efforts as well as provide a lot of other ideas and examples of other health professionals who have likewise tapped into these natural Public Relations, marketing and oral health ideas.
See an example of the national TV news - ABC TV news report: Click Here