Childhood Obesity Ads Now on Clear Channel | Balance Pilates

Clear channel and the Advertising Council have joined forces. Childhood obesity ads started running on Clear Channel last Wednesday. The campaign promotes healthy lifestyle choices for kids.

There are 5 ads that will be running on the stations and on their streaming websites, 2 of the ads are also in Spanish. The value of the advertising tips the scale at $30 million dollars.

According the the Center for Disease Control childhood obesity has risen by 30% in the last 30 years. The need to raise awareness and give actionable ideas through short ads that will be broadcast over 850 stations seems like another worthwhile approach to the Ad Council.

The ads use humor and catching lines to promote healthy eating and activity. Here is an example, one lists the ?hundreds of fun and simple things you and your family can do to live a healthier lifestyle,? including ?walk to work, walk the dog, have the dog walk you. Take a hike, take a bike, skate, dance, hop, jump, do the humpty hump. Drop the fat, drop the sugar, drop down and give me ten. Ditch the video games, ditch the remote, dig a ditch. Skip seconds, skip dessert, skip, skip, skip to my lou. Don?t skip breakfast.?

Health professionals and professors differ in their options of the ads. Dr. Marlene Schwartz, deputy director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University said ?almost gives people too many choices. Research has shown that people get overwhelmed when they are given too many options and sometimes choose to not act at all.?

While Geeta Menon, a professor of marketing and dean of the undergraduate college at the Stern School of Business at New York University, said she liked the ads? suggestion of ?tactical things people can do to be healthier. What I like about the approach is they?re not focusing on the overall less tangible goal, which they assume people know. They?re giving people hooks on how to implement it.?

Source: New York Times, Health and Fitness

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