New obesity campaign creates controversy in WA
When doing health related advertising, there are really only two ways they can be done – negative or positive. The positive ads show the advantages of doing whatever is being advertised, as an example, the advantages of stopping smoking and the good things that will happen as a result.
The negative ads are more about what will happen if a person does not do what is being advertised, once again using smoking ads as an example, the negative ones will have horrible pictures and statistics whilst emphasising death and sickness.
No-one has ever really agreed as to which type of advertising is more effective, as both have their place in enforcing a message. The negative Grim Reaper ads about AIDS prevention were considered to be extremely effective, but it has also been found that if only negative ads are used to spread a message, people literally switch off and don’t see the ad.
With this in mind, the Western Australian government has recently released a whole advertising campaign and supporting website in an attempt to reduce our increasing obesity rate. The campaign contains very negative clips which are designed to lead people to the positive website, which then has a whole program to encourage people to change their lifestyle and improve their health.
The campaign is called Livelighter and one of the clips can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx8Nvmgxu68
There are groups that are raging against the new campaign and say that it is just using shock tactics to get people to change behaviour to get thinner.
The campaign is being done in conjunction with both the Heart Foundation, and Cancer Council Western Australia. Approximately $6 million is spent annually in Western Australia on advertising of junk food. The LiveLighter campaign has cost $900,000.
Heart Foundation (WA Division) chief executive Maurice Swanson said “The important information contained in public health advertisements is at risk of being swamped by the unhelpful messages promoted by the junk food giants. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve taken a harder-hitting approach with the LiveLighter campaign. We need people to sit up, take notice and do something positive for their health. Eat more fruit and veg, cut back on foods high in sugar, salt and saturated fat, move your body more – these are simple things. We need to make a concerted effort to achieve a healthier weight.”