Jennie Garth Throws a 'Garden Party'

Actress Jennie Garth is lending her chops to promoting healthy eating along with Hidden Valley Ranch dressings, but not in the usual way. Instead of shooting a commercial to air on the small screen, the Beverly Hills, 90210 star will be hosting Garden Party, an original series to launch on the even-smaller web screen on iVillage this week. The site, which draws more than 32 million unique visitors per month, is a natural choice for the program since it is part of the NBC Universal Women & Lifestyle Entertainment Networks Group.

"I saw this series as an opportunity to help inspire, educate and motivate families like mine," Garth said, according to Variety.

The series, produced by NBC Universal Digital Studios, the folks at Hidden Valley Ranch and the Edelman-owned entertainment marketing agency Matter, aims to offer families advice on how to get more veggies into their diets. Garth will focus on a different vegetable each month and meet with farmers, chefs, kids and parents. She'll tour family farms, plant tubers in home gardens, visit cooking schools and just generally bring healthy eating to life. The site where the show is featured will also include recipes, a meal planner and other handy how-to elements.

The series is an example of a growing trend toward more creative forms of advertising and collaborations between film and TV studios with marketers. And while the trend has raised eyebrows among those who prefer a more strict adherence to a cleaner division of "Church and State," we're all for encouraging healthy eating. Fresh food can always use some plugging, as can local farmers. What can be wrong with encouraging the millions of women who visit iVillage every month to steer their kids toward healthier choices? Sure beats the hundreds of hours of fast food advertising children are exposed to every month.

Photo courtesy of The Heart Truth via Wikimedia Commons.