To raise awareness of the importance of vegetables in the real world, Knorr has launched a campaign in the virtual world to make vegetables more rewarding in games.

“#ModTheVeg”, created by MullenLowe in a multi-agency partnership, is based on the observation that meat-based foods in games earn characters more points than vegetables.

The campaign calls on developers to create in-game modifications, known as mods, to generate higher points for vegetables.

Gaming fans are invited to cast a vote in a ballot urging gaming publishers to re-evaluate their games and point systems, reflecting how vegetables are underrated compared with other food types in real life.

In Fortnite, consuming vegetables such as cabbage gains you 10 points, whereas eating meat gains 15 points. The trend continues across popular games such as Minecraft and World of Warcraft.

Knorr, owned by Unilever, has struck partnerships with Fortnite, Minecraft, Skyrim and GTA V to create more powerful vegetable mods in the games. The mods were developed by The Invaders and Arman Gungor was the art director.

ITB Worldwide handled the campaign’s influencer partnerships, including top Twitch gamer Ninja, who hosted a stream with Knorr to his 19 million followers in which he played with the vegetable mods.

Niek de Rooij, Knorr global masterbrand director, said: “We’re thrilled to team up with Ninja in highlighting this imbalance for veg in top games worldwide. We had no idea this was so widespread and bet that gaming publishers haven’t noticed either! This campaign is about getting veg super-charged as much in the virtual world as they are in the real world.”

MullenLowe’s creative team consisted of Jamie Warburton and Irene Pineda, with media planning handled by Mindshare.

Carlos Rodriguez, executive creative director at MullenLowe, said: “In helping Knorr make good food irresistible, we found that veggies are often underrated versus other types of food. When we saw that this reality was also true in video games, we knew we had to do something about it. Modding video games was a cool and funny way to start solving the issue, call out the big game publishers for change and connect with a younger audience.”