Running head: HOW OBESITY IS COMMUNICATED

How Obesity is Communicated on a National Level and the

Examination of Different Health Campaigns Aimed at Controlling Obesity
Georgiana Terzoglou
Bryant University

HOW OBESITY IS COMMUNICATED

Communicating major health topics and concerns in todays media to benefit the people
of the country can be very difficult. Health professionals and advocators have to make sure their
techniques and campaigns are creative and effectively targeting their direct market. Concerning
the health topic of obesity, there are many different ways advocators try to reach the citizens of
nation within the different mediums, especially through television and internet. Throughout the
years, obesity has become a more prevalent health concern in the United States. According to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), More than one-third (34.9% or 78.6
million) of U.S. adults are obese (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2014). Since the
percentage of obesity has greatly increased in the United States, there have been a several
campaigns and movements in order to raise awareness about the issue. Obesity is now a present
health topic that is communicated widely on a national level through different sources of media
today. Michelle Obamas, Lets Move!, campaign and The Campaign to End Obesity both use
similar and different health techniques and methods to communicate awareness of the issues of
obesity in the nation.
Obesity is one of the most prevalent health concerns that not a lot of people begin to
think is an issue in todays society. Many citizens in the United States feel that being overweight
and obese will not cause major health problems for them and that it is not a life-threating matter.
Many people confuse or merge together being overweight and obese, when in fact, there is a
difference. According to the definition, Overweight technically refers to an excess of
bodyweight, whereas, obesity, refers to an excess of fat (Klish 2014). In order to diagnose
people with obesity, health care professionals use the body mass index (BMI) to measure their
numbers. According to Klish, The body mass index (BMI) is the accepted standard measure of
overweight and obesity for children two years of age and older. BMI provides a guideline for

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weight in relation to height and is equal to the body weight (in kilograms) divided by the height
(in meters) squared (Klish 2014). If individuals fall into the category of a BMI between 25 and
30 they are said to be overweight. If individuals have a BMI greater than 30, they are considered
obese. In order to prevent obesity, individuals must keep an active lifestyle. According to the
CDC, Physical activity is anything that gets your body moving. You need to do two types of
physical activity each week to improve your health-aerobic and muscle strengthening (Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention 2014). Individuals should also sustain a healthy diet in order
to refrain from being overweight or obese in their lifetime. Obesity and its health concerns
should be communicated globally in order to help prevent and treat individuals who are currently
struggling with the health issue. In an article talking about how obesity is a growing global issue,
contributing writer Shah says, In our modern world with increasingly cheap, high calorie food
(example, fast food or junk food), prepared foods that are high in things like salt, sugars or
fat, combined with our increasingly sedentary lifestyles, increasing urbanization and changing
modes of transportation, it is no wonder that obesity has rapidly increased in the last few
decades, around the world (Shah 2010). Health professionals and advocators are now
challenged in finding an effective way to communicate the potential dangers to consuming these
unhealthy food and drinks. If there indeed is a way to communicate living a healthy, balanced
lifestyle, it could potentially help the national society as a whole in the long run. Individuals will
be able to enjoy a longer, happier lives.
Obesity is a worldwide health topic always making headlines in the news about how
many people are actually overweight in the country and struggling with their health because of
this health issue. On a national scale in the United States, the health concerns and issues of
obesity are mostly communicated through the media channels of television and internet. As

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individuals browse the World Wide Web, they can see many advertisements and endorsements
alluding to weight loss and sustaining a healthy weight for a healthier lifestyle. When people
search the internet for obesity facts, many different factual websites and advocating campaign
sites trying to bring awareness to the issue can be found. From the internet, individuals can find
things like National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month (COAM), along with their website and
a description of what they are advocating about the obesity epidemic in the United States.
According to COAM, Every September, National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month gives
elected officials, educations, physicians, and you the opportunity to take a stand and fight
childhood obesity. This year, there are dozens of ways you can help bring the message back to
your state, city, workplace, and home (COAM 2012). This advocacy starts just on the small
stage of the internet, as it can expand by word of mouth by encouraging others to spread
awareness about the health issues and concerns that come along with obesity. They spend the
entire month of September trying to spread awareness and get individuals to comply and realize
that obesity is in fact a life-threating issue and nothing something that should be treated like
other major health issues that are prevalent in the United States today.
On television, many commercials wanting to stop childhood obesity air as well. The
advertisements tend to use a scare tactic in order to frighten people to make them evaluate the
choices they are making day to day. According to the health belief model concerning perceived
severity, in order to catch the attention of the individual to effectively communicate the issue, it
must not be too serious or not serious enough, in the middle. This refers to the goldilocks
principle where the message in the advertisement or campaign needs to have just the right level
of seriousness in order to impact the individuals viewing the advertisement. For example, The
Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta Strong4Life campaign distributed a series of short 20 second

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advertisements advocating to end childhood obesity. One of the short advertisements featured a
young overweight girl looking into the camera saying how she does enjoy going to school
because everyone there picks on her for being fat and that it really hurts her feelings. At the end
of the girls quick message, words in all capital letters are shot at the viewer saying, Being fat
takes the fun out of being a kid (Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta Strong4Life 2011). This
obesity message is intended to target not only the children who feel as if they are overweight and
being picked on at school, but the childrens parents. The campaign tries to make the parents feel
guilty for letting their children eat processed and fatty foods. It also tries to make them
reevaluate their familys current eating habits. Television advertisements concerning obesity are
still not as effective as they could be today. People view thousands of advertisements and
campaign endorsements each day and do not seem to consider obesity to be that big of an issue,
especially compared to other major health concerns like cancer or heart disease.
Research has shown that the effects of media framing can alter the attitudes individuals
have towards the messages being brought forth by obesity awareness. In a scholarly article, it
states, more needs to be done to understand how to effectively communicate the risks of obesity
among adolescents...Media provide vital information for people on a variety of social, health,
and political issues; and information from the media can have a significant impact on
individuals attitudes and behavioral intentions (Hu, Lee, Shen & Sipes 2012). Research has
been done to conclude that there are numerous media message strategies that can potentially
change peoples attitudes and behaviors towards concepts and ideas. According to the article,
Framing refers to the effects of varying informational contents in messages on individuals
judgment and decision-making (Hu et al., 2012). Gain and loss appeals also contribute to
effective health messages as well. The research states, Gain appeals are those that emphasize the

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benefits of complying with advocated behavioral changes, whereas loss appeals focus on the
costs of failing to comply with advocated actions (Hu et al., 2012). When individuals view an
advertisement or campaign on obesity, showing positivity on how to change your lifestyle to a
healthier, more balanced one. Viewers are more discouraged and sensitive to advertisements that
show pure negativity and everything that could go wrong if one were to become obese. It is not
motivating to the individual and they then proceed to ignore the message and not make any kind
of changes to help benefit themselves in the long run. The research in the article says, a lossframed message would be more effective for a health detection issue (i.e., getting blood-tested
for HIV) because detection involves the high risk of an unpleasant outcome. A gain-framed
message will be more effective for a health prevention issue (i.e., exercising to lose weight)
because it involves the lower risk of an unpleasant outcome (Hu et al., 2012). Obesity
communication in the media today consists of mainly loss-framed messages that tend to
intimidate people, which makes them ignore the issue completely. The article proceeds to say,
Loss-framed messages, for example, have been found to be more persuasive than gain-framed
messages in promoting interest in and the utilization of screening mammography and breast selfexamination, which are detention behaviors. For prevention behaviors, such as sunscreen use,
researchers found gain-framed messages were more persuasive (Hu et al., 2012). Gain-framed
messages are more prevalent to getting the community to become aware of how to prevent and
control health issues concerning obesity.
Many health professionals and advocators today insist that specific advertising on
television can be one of the leading causes of childhood obesity. Researchers say, that
advertising unhealthy food products causes children to adopt eating habit that lead to obesity
(Beales III & Kulick 2013). As children sit down to watch their favorite television shows, they

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are taking in hundreds of commercials that influence negative health behaviors, such as
advertising high-fructose breakfast cereals or fast-food restaurants. According to the article,
results provide evidence confirming previous findings that older children who spend more time
watching television tend to have higher BMIs (Beales III & Kulick 2013). Instead of media
advertising and commuting ways to encourage children to stay active and live healthy lifestyles,
they are encouraging bad health behaviors, which can lead to potential problems in the future for
children and young adults.
Progressive health campaigns are the biggest advocacy in communicating health issues
and concerns in todays society, especially for obesity. One of the biggest obesity health
campaigns launched in the United States is First Lady, Michelle Obamas, Lets Move!
campaign. The campaign is described as, a comprehensive initiative, launched by the First
Lady, dedicated to solving the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation, so that
children born today will grow up healthier and able to pursue their dreams (Lets Move 2010).
The campaign has a set mission to, put children on the path to a healthy future during their
earliest months and years. Giving parents helpful information and fostering environments that
support healthy choices (Lets Move 2010). Their goal as a health campaign raising awareness
about obesity is make sure everyone is educated about making healthier choices and that
everyone has an access to healthy food. It also encourages individuals to become more active in
their daily lives to maintain a happy, healthy life.
Another popular health campaign focused on the awareness of obesity is The Campaign
to End Obesity.
In their personal mission statement, they say the following:

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Much can be done to reverse the epidemic, yet important opportunities to tackle obesity
at the national policy level including changes that enable more Americans to eat healthy
and be active, as well as those that provide appropriate medical treatment for patients
have gone largely unmet. The Campaign works to fill this gap. By bringing together
leaders from across industry, academia and public health with policymakers and their
advisors, the Campaign provides the information and guidance that decision-makers need
to make policy changes that will reverse one of the nations costliest and most prevalent
diseases (Fox, Littman & Silverman 2014).
The campaign strives individuals to eat healthy and be active, as well as providing help for those
who are currently struggling with the health issue. It advocates working with professionals to
spread awareness about how bad living with obesity can be and what can be done to prevent it
from happening in the first place. In their list of priorities, The Campaign to End Obesity says,
The solution to this epidemic sounds simple, but obesity is a complex disease, reflecting
changes in our lifestyles, schools, families, businesses, communities and even the way we
interact with the health care system. As with other pressing U.S. public health challenges like
encouraging Americans to smoke less and use seat belts public policies are needed to create the
environment for change (Fox et al., 2014). They explain that it is not an easy thing to change
overnight, but that raising awareness and pushing to create a federal policy will encourage
individuals in the United States to be healthier and more active.
Both of these advocacy campaigns strive to create awareness and information concerning
the health issues related to obesity. Lets Move and The Campaign to End Obesity are both
national campaigns that are well-known throughout the country. The Lets Move campaign, as
well as The Campaign to End Obesity both achieve all four goals of creating a successful health

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campaign. Those four goals include health awareness, behavior change, behavior enforcement,
and public policy. These two health advocacy movements have both advantages and
disadvantages to their techniques in spreading awareness about the health epidemic. The Lets
Move campaign is regularly in the media and always getting attention because of its popular
founder, First Lady, Michelle Obama. As individuals visit the website of the Lets Move
campaign, everything seems to very inviting and interactive. It encourages people to explore the
website and read the simple facts and statistics relating to obesity. It persuades individuals to join
the movement and begin improving their lifestyles. Michelle Obama hosts many events and
challenges that make children and young adults interested in learning more about what they can
do to make healthy choices in life. The campaign creates videos and commercials that air on
television and on the internet, which is able to communicate and reach millions of viewers. The
campaign uses gain appeals in order to motivate individuals to become more physically active
during the day, as well as to eat nutritiously each day. The campaign also emphasizes ways in
which people can prevent obesity from happening, such as using creative slogans like, Take
Action: Simple Steps to Success. This is considered to be gain-framed messaging, in which it
tries to persuade the individual to comply with the information being given. The disadvantage to
the Lets Move campaign is that some individuals just may not be motivated by what it has to
offer. Many children and young adults believe they do not have to worry about health issues at a
young age, therefore they may just completely ignore the facts in general. There needs to be
more done in the campaign to make the facts more interesting to children and young adults so
they feel as if they are doing something in order to better themselves in the long run.
The Campaign to End Obesity targets a more mature, adult group of advocates as
opposed to Michelle Obamas campaign, where it is aimed more at children and young adults.

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This health campaign is rarely covered in todays media and is much less popular than the Lets
Move advocacy. The online website for the health campaign is very basic, as it provides the facts
and limitations of obesity. It is not as creative and interactive as Lets Move, which could
potentially be why a more mature group of individuals are targeted. They provide basic facts on
obesity and how it is becoming more and more of a health epidemic here in the United States.
Like Lets Move, this campaign encourages individuals to become involved in the fight to end
obesity and to endorse their movements and beliefs. The Campaign to End Obesity takes a more
serious angle in trying to raise awareness compared to Lets Move, who is initially trying to
motivate children and young adults with fun and exciting ways in order to do so. This health
campaign also holds many events and research that also encourages individuals to join the
movement and to change their attitudes to make more positive, healthier life choices. Both the
Lets Move campaign and The Campaign to End Obesity provide effective messages to the
public, but still need to provide ways that make what they are trying to say more interesting and
appealing.
After researching how obesity is communicated on a national level and examining two
different health campaigns advocating obesity awareness, I realized that compared to a lot of
other health issues like diabetes and depression, obesity is communicated much more often.
Before researching health facts about obesity, I never realized how much of a risk to someones
life it can actually be. I always thought it was over-exaggerated and that there were more
important health issues out there to be advocated. I believe this may be one of the reasons
advocators have trouble reaching individuals and spreading awareness to the public about how
serious this disease can actually be. In order to help guide future ideas regarding health
campaigns, something still needs to be done about how to target and intrigue the target audience.

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Health care professionals and advocators are not thinking enough about how to actually intrigue
and entice people into learning more about specific health topics and issues. If this is finally
achieved, I believe more people will show interest in changing their lifestyles for the better. I
think in the near future communication regarding obesity will keep increasing and producing a
positive outcome.

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References

Beales III, H. J., Kulick, R. (2013). Does advertising on television cause childhood obesity?: A
longitudinal analysis. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 32(2), 185-194.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2014, September 9). Overweight and Obesity:
Adult Obesity Facts. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta Strong4Life. (2011, August 21). Stop Childhood Obesity:
Taking the Fun Out of Being a Kid. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=1t_H_DBHmGQ&playnext=1&list=PL3B99758F38

961860&feature=results_main

COAM. (2012). National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month: About COAM. Retrieved from
http://www.healthierkidsbrighterfutures.org/about/
Fox, C., Littman, D., & Silverman, S. (2014, January 1). The Campaign to End Obesity: About
Us. Retrieved from http://obesitycampaign.org/obesity_about_us.asp
Hu, F., Shen, F., Lee, S., & Sipes, C. (2012). Effects of media framing of obesity among
adolescents. Communication Research Reports, 29(1), 26-33.
Klish, JW. Definition; epidemiology; and etiology of obesity in children and adolescents. In:
UptoDate, Waltham, MA. (Accessed on December 1, 2014.)
Let's Move. (2010, January 1). Learn the Facts. Retrieved http://www.letsmove.gov/learnfacts/epidemic-childhood-obesity
Shah, A. (2010). Obesity. Global Issues: Social, Political, Economic and Environmental Issues
That Affect Us All. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/article/558/obesity