1 in 4 children in Ireland is overweight. Awareness of the growing problem was not an issue with parents; they were only too aware that they had a problem. What they had no idea of was how to tackle that problem. Telling them to feed their children vegetables instead of chicken nuggets and french fries was not a goer, nor was sending them out to boot camp. What parents needed were real, simple, actionable steps they could take, one at a time, to begin the journey to overcoming childhood obesity. In the TV commercials the importance of these steps was underlined by depicting what could be in store for children down the road if current bad habits were to go unchecked.
In print the decision was to be more direct, keeping the copy as advisory and non-finger-wagging as possible. This was not about pointing the finger of blame at parents.
A large element of this campaign was social. The children focused upon are still at an age where they are brought to school by their parents. And parents like to share stories about their children with each other at the school gates, as well as online in the hours until they need to go and pick the kids up again. Part of tackling childhood obesity is getting them more active. Many kids, if asked to name their favourite game would name one played on a console or tablet. So a hub #BringBackPlay was developed with the aim of getting parents to introduce their children to the favourite games they played when they were kids themselves. Hide & Seek, Blind Man’s Bluff, stuff like that. Then they could share which games were being played, their versions of the rules, and see which games were proving most popular.
