Childhood Obesity in Georgia and Communicating a Healthy Society

Apathy concerning the epidemic of childhood obesity is crumbling under the weight of public outcry over a new ad campaign by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta: the Stop Childhood Obesity campaign depicts the health and emotional problems brought on by the disease. It was recently launched in Georgia because, according to Linda Matzigkeit at Children’s Healthcare, “We felt like we needed a very arresting, abrupt campaign that said: Hey, Georgia! Wake up. This is a problem.” According to Children’s Healthcare, Georgia ranks second in the nation with the highest rate of childhood obesity. Many critics believe the ads do nothing but make fat kids feel worse about themselves and lead them to withdraw even more into bad eating and activity habits. I believe the campaign will be a success for two reasons. Firstly, it shows kids that they should take ownership of their body and lifestyle and seek their parents support in getting to a healthy weight. As an obese Middle-schooler myself, I was the one who approached my Mom about joining Weight Watchers. I’m sure more kids would take the same kind of action if they were inspired to do so. Perhaps this ad campaign can do that. Secondly, I believe in this campaign because it gives parents a much needed electric shock, waking them up to address the problem and take responsibility for the health of their family.

Marsha Davis, who researches child obesity prevention at the University of Georgia said, “If we want to get attention [and] say obesity is a problem, maybe [the campaign] will be effective. In terms of the social stigma about weight — it might actually make people feel worse about that…We need to fight obesity, not obese people.” I disagree, the fact is human behavior is causing obesity and we need people to realize that they’re killing themselves with poor nutrition and lack of exercise. We need to recognize childhood obesity as an issue and not continue to sweep it under the rug. Just like Isabelle Caro, the anorexic super model, used a billboard to bring attention to her disease brought on by human behavior, so too will Georgia’s obesity ad campaign.

Critics like Marsha Davis fear the Obesity campaign makes children feel worse about themselves. She wrongly assumes that the fear of not belonging, poor health, and low self-esteem, all caused by obesity, are not effective motivators to change human behavior.  The objective of the campaign is not to make Georgians aware of an obesity epidemic, that’s old news; the goal is to get people to do something about it –for children to seek support and for parents to regiment their family’s lifestyle. There is no better way to do this than with a campaign executed to shock everyone out of their stupor and take responsibility for their behaviors.

Through policies designed to increase economic development, the government has encouraged big businesses to propagate unhealthy foods and lifestyles. In turn, these businesses have used the power of advertising to create a Culture of Obesity in this country. Perhaps Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s campaign can shift the momentum just a bit by using the power of advertising for good.

Insight -a Definition

Where do insights come from? Insights are based on the analysis and interpretation of information. Information can come from primary or secondary research into the consumer, brand, category or competition.

To get to an insight, start with an observation derived from one of the four areas above. Something like “many men like spicy food” or “red cars get more speeding tickets than cars of other colors.” Observations are easy to come by. I bet you could think of 100 right now. To turn observations into insights look beyond the observation and ask, “Why is this?” Why do many men like spicy food? Why do red cars get more speeding tickets? The key is to find the root cause. Many times the answer is found by decoding and understanding human nature.

Why do many men like spicy food? Because it’s an area of competition and esteem, withstanding the intensity of spicy food is a sign of toughness.

Why do red cars get more speeding tickets? Because, like the flames of a fire, red objects appear to move quicker and be more dangerous than objects of another color.

Good marketing is based on insight and the strategy that leverages it; essentially this is what Planners bring to the table in their work. Here is an example from a famous campaign.

Why do people litter? Because when keeping the environment clean is everyone’s responsibility, there is no motivation for any one person to act. Leveraging this consumer insight, GSD&M created the “Don’t Mess with Texas” campaign that positioned littering as a personal slight to every Texan with state pride.

Next time you are looking for insight, remember that an insight is simply an observation waiting to be decoded. Seek to understand the why behind the action.

Occupy Wall St. -Capitalism and Democracy Clash

Democracy cannot live in a Capitalist system.

The idea of democracy is that people have equal voice and vote in decision-making. The capitalist idea is that people working in their own self-interest will result in public good. These ideologies clash in the American system because capitalism corrupts true democracy. Capitalism allows those with the most resources (corporations and the wealthy) to buy a BIG voice for their self-interest. Their single voice is so large that it drowns out the smaller, disparate voices of the many. It commands more influence than the small voices and wins favorable laws, tax breaks and business incentives from the government. The Occupy Wall Street movement fascinates me because people are uniting their small voices to fight back against corporations. In six weeks, the “Occupy” protest has grown to over 100 U.S. cities. Americans are waking up the fact that capitalism and democracy don’t mix and that “being free” means liberty from big government and big business.