I remember hating being indoors as a child, I was always outside riding my bike, exploring through the creek that ran through my backyard, climbing trees, playing soccer, and barely managing to keep out of trouble with my brothers and the neighborhood kids. We were always finding something new and exciting to do and when that got boring we would move on to something else. Recess was the best part of the day, besides lunch, because you were outside and running around and no longer stuck in that cramped classroom. Today, kids seemed to be more preoccupied with their favorite TV show on Disney channel, or playing games on their XBOX or IPad. They are not playing outside nearly as much as we used to and are not engaging in high enough levels of physical activity, and its believed this will have serious effects of their future.
The social marketing campaign, “Designed to Move” is aimed towards children and is its purpose is to increase physical activity levels. The first thing you see on the Designed to Move website, in big bold letters, is, “TODAY’S CHILDREN MAY BE THE FIRST GENERATION TO HAVE A SHORTER LIFE EXPECTANCY THAN THEIR PARENTS. LET’S CHANGE THAT.” There is a video playing in the background and when you click on the link it begins with scenes of vacant swing sets, baseball diamonds, playgrounds, and basketball courts, places that should be filled with children playing. The video then continues by asking children what they would do if they had an extra five years to live. Their adorable responses resemble building time machines, making medicine for the sick, getting more hamsters, looking for aliens, being the boss of all the chipmunks, and checking out the moon. There are questions as to why they are being asked what they would do with those five extra years and the video concludes with text saying, “For the first time in history, this generation may die five years younger than their parents. Let’s give them those five years back.”
This social marketing campaign plays to the emotions of both children and adults. Children would obviously love to live as long as possible and adults would love for them to do the same. It is important that this campaign is directed to both audiences because parents of children are able to find new ways for their kids to be involved. Designed to move states that the first ten years of a child’s life are critical for a commitment to physical activity.
Social marketing campaigns are very useful when a message needs to be sent to a wide and diverse audience. This is much more convenient than distributing handouts or educating smaller groups of people at a time. Because most social marketing campaigns are digital, they can be referred back to at any time. There are some limitations to social marketing campaigns including very little or no person to person contact. This presents the issues of no feedback and the audience unable to ask questions. It is also more difficult to confirm that the campaign is actually reaching its intended audience. I think social marketing is a good strategy to send a message to a large audience but may be less effective when it comes to expanding on the topic and clarifying any confusion.
The Designed to Move website can be found here: http://www.designedtomove.org/