Georgia recently started a campaign to help stop the growing problem of childhood obesity. Georgia’s Childhood Obesity website took a different approach to advertise the growing (no pun intended) problem of child obesity. When you go to their website you see a large picture of an overweight child along with a video, a strong headline, and 4 other children highlighted as obese. The first child, Bobby’s headline says, “75% of parents of overweight kids ignore the problem. Just ask Bobby.”.
“My doctor says I have something called hypertension,” says a girl named Maritza. “I just always thought she was thick, like her mama,” says the mother of a girl named Tamika.
Not all healthcare experts are viewing these ads as the correct way to go about the problem. It’s kind of obvious there would be a large backlash from this health marketing technique. I’m not sure if I’m against it or not, because I know there is huge problem with childhood obesity in the United States and it’s getting tougher and tougher to keep kids active and in shape with all of our social media and technology. I feel like the majority of children these days eat, play video games, check Facebook and Twitter, and watch videos online. It was a powerful move for Georgia to launch this bold ad, but do you think it was the right choice for them? How would you stop childhood obesity?
Here is one of the videos they have on their website and Youtube.
We can’t continue to ignore the fact that Georgia has the second highest rate of childhood obesity in the country. We must open our eyes and look around: Kids are now suffering from diseases once seen only in adults. How do we save the next generation of Georgia’s kids? Working together through long-term change. First, we must come together as a community and talk about it.
