‘Don’t mention obesity’: Contradictions and tensions in the UK Change4Life health promotion campaign

Abstract

The emphasis on body weight and the terms 'fat', 'overweight' and 'obese' are increasingly political in public health promotion. The UK government's 2009-2011 social marketing campaign, Change4Life explicitly avoids the term 'obesity' and imagery that connotes it, despite the emphasis on obesity in the preceding research, policy and strategy. Using a critical health psychology perspective, this research explores the tensions arising from the omission of 'obesity' in the Change4Life campaign. We argue the justifications for omitting obesity are at times contrary to evidence that informed the campaign. Considerations are offered for the construction of future health promotion campaigns.

Cluster-randomised trial to evaluate the ‘Change for Life’ mass media/ social marketing campaign in the UK

“…The aim of Change4Life was to prevent obesity, but no mention was made of ‘obesity’ in any of the campaign materials [4]. It has been argued that this was contrary to the evidence base on which it was developed, which was clearly to prevent obesity, and perhaps this reduced its impact since increasing knowledge about obesity without mentioning it is problematic [34]. …”

Fighting obesity or obese persons? Public perceptions of obesity-related health messages

“…Additional campaigns were identified through empirical articles (for example, refs. (29,(35)(36)(37)(38)) contact with and manual searches of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 39 and communities putting prevention to work 40 websites. Searches were conducted from June-July 2011.…”

Turning health research into health promotion: A study of causality and ‘critical insights’ in a United Kingdom health campaign

“…While Wakefield et al [1] conclude that mass media campaigns can produce positive changes or prevent negative changes in health-related behaviours across large populations, other research suggests such campaigns are not unproblematic, positive endeavours, particularly with regard to the nature of the messages being promoted [2,3]. This current research focuses on a UK public health campaign named Change4Life, and examines the dynamics of policy production and promotion that lead to the manifestation of the eventual campaign.…”

“…Social marketing uses commercial marketing strategies (including targeting of 'consumers' and 'branding' to create health campaigns), and the approach is ostensibly 'especially well-suited for the task of translating necessarily complex educational messages and behaviour change techniques into concepts and products' [5,6]. Despite this hopeful orientation, social marketing is considered here to be potentially problematic, particularly with regard to modifying health information as to be 'palatable for consumers' [3]. This article explores part of this process of 'translating' health messages by examining the dynamics of Change4Life production process.…”