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Marketers caught on long ago to the advantages of involving kids in their brands at an early age. Now natural foods heavyweight Whole Foods is applying the notion to the YouTube generation with a video contest focused on green living. Earlier this month Texas-based Whole Foods launched the Whole Earth Generation, a video podcast series dedicated to raising environmental awareness among today’s youth. Episodes of the series will address topics generated by Generations Y and Z, with highlights including interviews with celebrities and peers, ideas for a sustainable future, cool green products, and how to convince skeptical families and friends to go green. To kick off the new initiative, the company announced a contest to find six kids aged 8 to 17 to serve as hosts of the green-themed series, which will run through April 29. Children from all over the United States and Canada can either submit a video at Whole Foods’ YouTube page, or they can show up in person at one of the designated Whole Foods Market stores in New York, Chicago and Austin throughout March for auditions on select days. Videos can include singing, dancing, rapping or documentary-style footage, for example, and must be no more than two minutes long. The contest closes March 24. Select videos will be featured on the site leading up to Earth Day, and ultimately, six winners—three from the YouTube entries and three from the in-store auditions—will be chosen to be hosts of the podcast series. “So many shoppers tell us they have learned how to be more environmentally conscious by listening to their kids,” explains Heather Kennedy, Whole Foods’ senior coordinator of national marketing. “We hope this program takes that trend to an even broader audience via the Internet.” Besides helping to spread the green word, of course, Whole Foods’ initiative will also involve kids in many of the company’s core values and maybe even increase the likelihood that they’ll be loyal customers themselves in a few years. Not a bad way to ensure your own sustainable future! Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen