In the past 20 years, obesity rates have skyrocketed across the United States. Fast food, high fatty foods, trans fats, excess calories and limited exercise have all been included as culprits of this epidemic. Relatively recently, the exposure of the toll that sugary beverages have on weight gain has impacted Americans and many public health campaigns across the country have targeted their focus of prevention on lowering the amount of sugary drinks consumed by Americans.
“Fatsmack” is a public health campaign that targeting teens, exposing sugary beverages and drinks as a huge contributor to weight gain. A goal of this campaign is to make teens aware that although it may not seem like they are consuming calories when they have sugary beverages, they could in return “get smacked” by weight gain unexpectedly. Along with exposing the facts about sugary beverages, the campaign also offered other helpful information on drinks to consume regularly and gave examples of drinks to have as treats on occasion.
The website created a straightforward nature by interweaving facts and figures into the website, making this campaign very effective. Facts were displayed directly, clearly explaining to the audience the desired message. As shown in the image above, ingredients found in sugary beverages were listed directly, giving the audience a clear understanding of drinks to stay away from. The website also effectively places this information in a table, making the information easy for the audience to remember.
Information was clearly written and explained so the audience didn’t have any lingering questions. For example, the campaign begins it’s message with the following sentence: Sugary drinks such as soda, sport drinks, sweetened tea, coffee drinks and energy drinks, are loaded with “empty,” or non-nutritional calories that can be damaging to your health. As shown in this sentence, the reader isn’t left wondering what counts as a sugary drink or what an “empty” calorie is. This is important for building the reader’s knowledge and making this an effective campaign.
I really enjoyed looking at this campaign’s website because it was straightforward and very user friendly. The tabs on the side made it easy for someone to quickly learn more about a topic they were interested in. The tabs were also located in chronological order of significance, therefore the most important facts were placed at the start of the website in order to get the information across first to those searching the website.
Another positive aspect of this campaign is that it presents options that are realistic and true. Water is obviously the best alternative to sugary drinks, but the website also shared information about other drinks to include, such as low-fat and non-fat milk, 100% fruit juice and other options to occasionally have, like diet soda, diet tea and low calorie sports drinks. However the website also did a good job at explaining that drinks like diet sodas, teas and sports drinks are not to be supplemented for the other sugary drinks, but used more as an occasional treat.
In critiquing this campaign, there is not much I would alter because it is very well done and displayed well. While more graphics or use of videos could be increased, I believe the graphics and facts were displayed in the effective way that the campaign desired to present. This social media campaign is an effective tool in providing information that will aid in preventing obesity and diabetes and aid in creating a healthy uprising generation.
http://www.bphc.org/whatwedo/healthy-eating-active-living/fatsmack/Pages/fatsmack.aspx