Are vegetables the victims of bad marketing? Is it possible that simply dressing up a zucchini as a surfer dude will get kids to eat more zucchini?

A study recently published in the journal Pediatrics says yes. And if you play videos and display banners about him — and his carrot and sweet pea friends — you can increase kids' visits to the salad bar by a whopping 240 percent.

Here's a video about Super Sprowtz, an organization that turned vegetables into a cast of superhero characters to teach children about nutrition:

The study was conducted by researchers at the Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition at Cornell University. Professor Drew Hanks is its lead author.

Hanks is now a professor of consumer sciences at Ohio State University, and he joins Here & Now's Robin Young to discuss the implications of his research.

Drew Hanks, assistant professor of consumer sciences at Ohio State University.