Is this PR? Inside the VERB Campaign

Remember the VERB campaign? It encouraged young children (ages nine to thirteen) to be physically active every day, and its goal was “to increase and maintain physical activity among tweens.” According to research, one third of children and teenagers are either overweight or at risk of being overweight. From 2002 to 2006, the VERB campaign tried to engage the community, and create a change in unhealthy eating behaviors and laziness. The messages and goals of this campaign were sound, but their poor execution led to its ultimate ineffectiveness.

Furthermore, I think the dependency “tweens” place on television and/or video games for entertainment can lead to unhealthy snacking behaviors. In addition some studies have found associations between the sheer amount of time a child watches television and the child’s weight.So, the importance of the media in our daily lives makes it difficult for the VERB campaign to be successful.

The campaign would have to change TV viewing patterns and dependency first, and then promote an active life in order to more effectively evoke change. Some may have benefited from this campaign, but ultimately this campaign failed because it was unable to collapse and rebuild our society’s rigid social structure into a pro-activity life. I also think it’s message was simply not loud enough and consequently fell to the wayside of the many other messages we receive every day.

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