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An Anti-Obesity Campaign Takes to the Airwaves

THE ADVERTISING COUNCIL has joined forces with Clear Channel Media and Entertainment to run a new series of radio ads about childhood obesity on Clear Channel’s 850 stations for three months.

Written in English and Spanish, the ads use humor to encourage families to lead a healthier lifestyle; they also mention “We Can!”, an education program of the National Institutes of Health aimed at promoting healthy weight in youth.

The ads, which start on Wednesday, will run in all 150 markets Clear Channel radio stations serve, reaching an estimated 237 million listeners each month. They will also run on a Web site Clear Channel has established, iheartradio.com/healthyhabits; the Web sites of each of the 850 stations also will carry banner ads promoting the campaign. According to the Ad Council and Clear Channel, the value of the advertising is $30 million.

The new campaign represents the first time the Ad Council has run a campaign exclusively on radio; it is also the first time it has partnered with a media company to develop such a large initiative.

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The new ads are an extension of the Ad Council’s efforts to combat obesity, a subject it first addressed in 2004, when it partnered with the Health and Human Services Department on a campaign directed toward adults. In 2005, the two organizations joined forces again, on a campaign to encourage children to eat healthfully and be active, an effort the first lady, Michelle Obama, adopted as one of her causes.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of overweight and obese children has more than tripled among some groups in the United States over the last 30 years; other studies have shown that more than 30 percent of American children and teenagers are overweight or obese.

This is the second time Clear Channel Communities, the corporate social responsibility arm of Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, has adopted a cause to promote, as part of a program begun last January. Organizations apply for Clear Channel’s support; one is chosen by the communications company each quarter. It first supported DonorsChoose.org, a nonprofit group that finances local teachers’ classroom projects.

According to Jessica King, director of community engagement for Clear Channel, the company opted to support the Ad Council’s latest anti-obesity initiative because “developing healthy eating and physical activity habits as an entire family can positively impact many areas of a child’s life.”

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A mock-up of one of the new online ads created by Clear Channel and the Advertising Council featured on Z100's Web site.

The campaign — which is aimed at adults — consists of five 30-second radio spots in English; two of the five are also available in Spanish. All were written by Lee Seidenberg, a freelance copywriter who has created other public service advertising for the Ad Council, Robin Hood Foundation and YouthAIDS.

The ads employ humor to promote healthy eating and habits among children. For example, one lists the “hundreds of fun and simple things you and your family can do to live a healthier lifestyle,” including “walk to work, walk the dog, have the dog walk you. Take a hike, take a bike, skate, dance, hop, jump, do the humpty hump. Drop the fat, drop the sugar, drop down and give me ten. Ditch the video games, ditch the remote, dig a ditch. Skip seconds, skip dessert, skip, skip, skip to my lou. Don’t skip breakfast.”

In another spot, a young boy asks his mother what is in their living room. The mother says it is “an igloo made of carrots,” and pushes her son in, saying “The only way out is to eat your way out.”

The message at the end of this spot is, “There are better ways to get your kids to eat better. Visit iheartradio.com/healthyhabits for a free smart shopping list and lots more great tips.”

Peggy Conlon, president and chief executive of the Ad Council, called the radio medium “a very, very important component” of many Ad Council campaigns.

The spots are running on radio stations like Z100 and 106.7 Lite FM in New York, KIIS-FM in Los Angeles, WDAS-FM in Philadelphia, and SUNNY 99.1 FM in Houston; as well as on Spanish-language stations like Mega 95.5 FM in Chicago and 103.5 Super X in Miami. They will not run on Sirius/XM.

Dr. Marlene Schwartz, deputy director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, said that although she appreciated the campaign’s effort to address childhood obesity issues, she was concerned it “almost gives people too many choices. Research has shown that people get overwhelmed when they are given too many options and sometimes choose to not act at all.”

However, Geeta Menon, a professor of marketing and dean of the undergraduate college at the Stern School of Business at New York University, said she liked the ads’ suggestion of “tactical things people can do to be healthier. What I like about the approach is they’re not focusing on the overall less tangible goal, which they assume people know. They’re giving people hooks on how to implement it.”

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Amy Jordan, director of the media and developing child sector at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, praised the ads for addressing “the norms we see, even if they are turned on their head,” like the mother and son arguing over a carrot igloo.

And Kasisomayajula Viswanath, an associate professor of health communication at the Harvard School of Public Health, commended the Spanish-language component of the campaign, since he said Hispanics “pay attention to health messages on the radio more so than other racial and ethnic groups.The fact that the Ad Council is focusing on radio maximizes the opportunities for Latinos to get its messages.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 3 of the New York edition with the headline: An Anti-Obesity Campaign Takes to the Airwaves. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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