Hakuhodo invents Pacoo, a fork that makes veggies more fun
- News
Tokyo—March 9, 2018—Hakuhodo Inc., Japan’s second largest advertising agency, is proud to announce that it has invented a fork that makes eating veggies more fun: the Pacoo (trademark pending).
Most children hate vegetables. Pacoo is a fork-shaped dietary education device that cures them of their aversion by making vegetables more fun to eat. When it is time to eat their vegetables, it motivates them to tuck in by playing a funky sound. During the Pacoo project, Hakuhodo formulated insights (hypotheses) on children’s motivation based on observations of them in everyday situations: they are natural mimics, for example, and they love anything that is a game. Applying those insights, we then developed the Pacoo Method, Hakuhodo’s own unique method of motivating kids to eat using sounds and rhythms that they instinctively love. The prototype will be improved in accordance with users’ needs.
Pacoo is the joint creation of two project teams at Hakuhodo: Human X (pronounced “Human Cross”), which develops methods and products that enhance human abilities with scientific thinking, and the Hakuhodo Kodomo-Gokoro Factory, which offers new values to society, and spearheads new social movements, by focusing on the minds of children and delivering content to match. Assistance was provided by Koji Tsukada, Associate Professor of Media Architecture of Future University Hakodate in Hokkaido.
The Hakuhodo booth at the trade show South by Southwest (SXSW) 2018, a showcase for technology startups to begin March 11 in Texas, USA, will feature an interactive demonstration of the Pacoo fork with four different vegetables: carrots, broccoli, eggplant, and tomatoes.
Hakuhodo no longer confines itself to its traditional domain of advertising. By adapting existing technologies to the needs of ordinary people, we enthusiastically come up with ideas for products designed to open up new vistas in life and carve out new markets.
*Interactive demos of the device will be offered to media representatives in Japan after SXSW is over.
