Earlier this week the Government announced that it will withdraw funding from its public health campaign, Change4Life. Here we take a closer look at the campaign, its objectives and those involved.

  • Change4Life, a food industry-backed scheme, was drawn up to help in the fight against obesity, and was officially launched by the UK government in November 2008. Food companies, backed by the Advertising Association, pledged to incorporate messages from the Change4Life campaign into their promotional activity. The likes of Kraft, Unilever, Kellogg, PepsiCo, Asda and Tesco weighed in with GBP200m (US$308.3m) worth of airtime as well as pushing their own healthy-eating initiatives.
  • The Change4Life advertising campaign began in January 2009 and in the initial stage targeted young families with children aged 5-11 years. Since its launch the movement has grown to targeting parents of 1-4 years olds (early years) and new parents with babies (Start4Life).
  • According to the Department of Health, without action, by 2050 some 90% of today’s children will be overweight and at risk from serious disease. Experts have estimated that obesity could cost the NHS some GBP50bn by 2050. Reports at the time of the scheme launch found that over a third of children in the UK were overweight or obese.
  • “We aim to utilise all the excellent work already underway combating obesity, and combine it with new ideas and opportunities, share best practice and harness it into a national, recognisable movement. It will complement existing clinical resources already available to health care professionals tackling obesity and offer additional Change4Life resources to help engage with parents on this sensitive topic” – Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson and Chief Nursing Officer Dame Christine Beasley wrote to health care professionals to inform them of Change4Life on its launch
  • The movement is designed to reposition the issue of obesity, highlighting to parents the links between weight and preventable illnesses and their responsibility to ensure their children eat well and take regular exercise. The programme also provides a helpline and website offering information about healthy eating, ideas for being active and access to a database of local activities.
  • The programme also allowed, as part of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP), parents of children in reception and year six, to routinely be sent their child’s results (height, weight and an interpretation) at any time during the 2008/09 academic year. These letters were sent with a Change4Life leaflet encouraging them to eat well, move more and live longer, and to join the movement.
  • One year after the launch, the Government documented its targets for reach, logo recognition, awareness, response to questionnaires, families who had signed up and sustained interest. In all categories, the Department of Health said it had achieved, and in most cases exceeded all of its targets.

 

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