PSA Campaign: Child Obesity



PSA Campaign: Child Obesity

Introduction and Objective of PSA

Many leading health officials consider the current epidemic of childhood and adolescent obesity in the United States to be the greatest public health problem facing us today. Obesity is more than being just overweight; it refers to being excessively overweight. Individual's health is determined through his body weight. In children, risks of morbidity and mortality increases due to overweight and obesity (Barness, 2007). This also increases the chances of health related diseases in children. The importance of age is more for the children obesity, because there is a strong correlation between the growth patterns and age of a child.

In spite of the serious concerns for child obesity of the American government, and health agencies, there is little or no awareness about the issue in the general public. Therefore, there is an extreme need of conducting awareness programs for the children, their parents and teachers, in order to ensure quality and healthy life for our next generation. The main objective of this Public Service Advertisement (PSA) is to create awareness about some of the reasons of child obesity, and also highlight the major and threatening consequences of this issue.

Target Audience

The aim of this advertisement is to target the obese and non obese children and teens. The parents and teachers would also be focused on, during the ad. This would help in making the parents about the health conditions of their children.

Information Required for Effective PSA

The major focus group for this ad would be the children aged between 6 and 11. First of all this ad would require to have statistical information about the obese children of the selected age group. A comparison of current statistics with that of previous few years would be of great help. Secondly, we would focus on determining the eating and exercise habits of the children. This is required under the thought that our current sedentary lifestyles and lack of exercise contribute most to creating obesity in the people of all age. Hence, the relation between life style/habits of children with the obesity will be analyzed. As the ad aims to create awareness in the general public, the ad would also include some information about the possible health risks for the obese children.

Survey Questions

What is the age and weight of the Child?

What is his/her BMI?

What does the child consume in school breaks?

How many times in a week does the child go to junk food restaurant?

What are the physical activities of the child?

What does he/she know about obesity?

Research Questions

What have been the trends of children obesity over the past few years?

How does the obesity relate with the lifestyle/habit of children?

What are some other factors that may influence obesity, such as income?

Initial Investigation

Currently, 18.8 percent of children (ages six to 11) and 17.4 percent of adolescents (ages 12 to 19) are overweight or obese. This translates into nearly one out of every six young people in the United States, and this number is ...