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COM-451-501 Integrated Strategic Communication
Group Project
“The Effect of a Modern Lifestyle on Childhood Obesity”
Hamda Khalifa 200720965
Maryam Ali 200721333
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“This Project is dedicated to Maryam Mirza who passed away”
18.03.2011
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Table of Contents Section Page
Executive Summary 4
Research
-Analyzing the situation 4
- Organizational Analysis 5
-Analyzing the public
-Analyzing the key characteristics of the key public 6
Strategy
-Goals 6
-Position 7
-Objectives 7
-Proactive strategy 7
-Reactive strategy 8
-Message Source and Spokesperson 8
-Message appeals 9
-Verbal Communication 9
-Nonverbal Communication 10
Tactics
-Pre-campaign 11
--Press Releases 11
-Website 11
-Buzz 12
-Photos and Captions 12
-Studio Interviews 13
-Special Events 14
-Distribution 14
Schedule 15
Budget 15
Evaluation Plan 16
References 16
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Executive Summary
The youth of our society not only here in the UAE but possibly world wide are
consumed with electronic video games and the cyber world. Children here in the
UAE not only enjoy playing for long constant hours during the day but they are
highly committed to their hobby and spend a lot of money in purchasing the necessary
attire to maintain their habit.
The problem that we wish to state is not about the excessive hours spent in
front of the television or PC but the fact that hours of the day are wasted playing
video games indoors and not being used to exercise out doors. In our current
generation children prefer to spend whatever free time they have holding their gaming
console. As a result of this the number of over weight children has increased greatly
and the number of children getting diabetes has gone up as well. Children nowadays
are inactive they don’t enjoy moving outdoors in the fresh air they stay in one spot for
hours if they aren’t forced to move.
Therefore our campaign is to raise awareness to parents and institutions to
urge their children to be more active in their childhood and not stay cooped up in their
living room or bedroom remaining inactive and gaining weight. We also would like
to show kids by using their imagination the different games they could play outside
which hopefully will encourage them to go and have fun with their siblings or friends
and as a result make them healthier.
We will form a series of talks to present to the families and institutions that
will contain solutions and a well-designed program that will consist of different
activities that will get their children to be more active. Whereas for the children we
will form an interactive video since that’s what they are interested in that explains the
benefits of being active and the how playing video games is not good for their health.
Analyzing the situation
Her in the UAE the situation that is presented to us is that the current youth of
the nation is suffering from an inactive and unhealthy lifestyle, this issue has been
voiced to us by leading newspapers such as the gulf news where it was mentioned by
Suzanne Trease, Chair of the Department of Health and Physical Education, “Trease
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blames a sedentary lifestyle for the rise of obesity in the UAE. "A lot of them
[students] have things done for them," she said. Trease said that from observation,
physical activity is not typically part of the Emirati culture and is therefore not
instilled in children by parents”(Naidoo, & Moussly, 2009). Therefore the position we
face with our campaign idea is how do we convince institutions and families to
incorporate a more active program for children in school schedules and households.
This is important as they state further down the article, “Trease stressed the urgency
of incorporating healthy living into UAE's lifestyle. "It's imperative we educate this
generation and those to come, about healthy living because if we don't, life
expectancy will grow even shorter. If you can walk moderately for 30 minutes a day
and keep your heart rate above 130 beats per minute, that's a great start"(Naidoo, &
Moussly, 2009). Then on the other hand we have the children that we want to
encourage and motivate to actually participate in these activities. The reason why this
may be a challenge is because schools may view this as them needing to acquire a
larger budget to provide staff and equipment in order for the children to play activities
with the correct supervision. Then we have the parents who may lead a very busy
lifestyle with work therefore they may say they have no time to accompany their
children since they have no time or not a large enough budget to sign their kids to a
sporting club. Our campaign will view the different ways in which we can approach
this and convince them how to get kids moving without costing too much.
The situation with the kids may be a bit more difficult since if they are
accustomed to no moving a lot it would be hard to convince them to do so. After
getting them to do it the first time they may find themselves being fatigued and then
the second time may not be to keen on being active so we should find a way to keep
them committed and encouraged until they feel that being active is part of their daily
routine.
Organizational Analysis
The client we will be representing is the Dubai Health Authority. The reason
is because the government of Dubai has expressed great concern in the past about the
increase of obesity within the Emirate. This apprehension was displayed in an article
released by the Dubai Health Authority where they mentioned, “Now-a-days, obese
children under 10 years of age have been suffering with type 2 diabetes, which was
earlier considered as adult-onset diabetes, affecting people over age 40”, (Jindal,
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2010). Therefore, there is an obvious concern for children’s overall health since this
isn’t the first health awareness campaign hosted by the Dubai Health Authority there
were multiple in the past that were not highly successful. So hopefully by allowing us
to project the message across to the designated audience we would be satisfying our
client and public.
Analyzing the public
"The UAE records one of the highest rates of obesity in the world with almost
70 per cent of the population suffering from the malady." But there's limited data on
obesity in the region, which is the reason for the research study”(Naidoo, & Moussly,
2009). “UAE children have 1.8 times the rate of overweight compared to international
standards at 10 and 18 years of age”, (Al-haddad, Little, & Abdul Ghafoor, 2005).
The public that we wish to appeal to are young children from grade 4-9 of both
genders which would make their age range start from 9 in grade 4 and go up to 15 in
grade 9. This is because during this age they are very much inactive which results in
them being overweight, “Nearly 78 per cent of UAE children lack the amount and
type of physical activity that would protect them from cardiovascular disease and
keep them healthy, according to a study conducted by the World Health
Organization”, (Zaman, 2010).
The second audience we wish to acquire is educational institutions here in
Dubai since children spend most of their day in school so we have to try and make a
change there, which hopefully will influence the child and allow them to carry the
habit home.
Parents have a large part to play in the up bringing of the new generation
therefore, we hope to be able to persuade and enlighten parents about this ordeal.
Goals
By the end of our campaign in duration of 2 months we will have educated
parents, children and institutions on the benefits of exercise. We will have
contributed to the nutrition and activity programs of schools. Parents will be more
aware on the seriousness of the matter and will be able to provide solutions easy for
them and their kids. The children will be weighed in after 2 months and weight loss
recorded.
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Positioning
We would like our campaign to be viewed as trying to improve the lifestyle
and health of the youth in Dubai. We do not only focus on parents and institutions
although they play a huge role in the shaping of a child, we tap into the psyche of the
children and try to understand what makes the direct their time and energy to playing
these games. Moreover we don’t only change the food consumed we give reasonable
and attainable solutions that can easily be interpreted by parents and schools. Our
main interest here is the children for it is a shame that they spend their childhood in
front of a screen they are missing out on the world around them.
Objectives
By the end of our campaign in duration of 2 months we will have educated
parents, children and institutions on the benefits of exercise; specifically by a series of
talks and actual instructive classes on how to get the children to move and play
activities we will measure this by the number of parents and faculty sign up and agree
to this. We will have contributed to the nutrition and activity programs of schools
this will be checked by the end of the campaign this would visible on the schedules to
that the schools incorporate what they’ve learnt. The children will be weighed in after
2 months and weight loss recorded.
Proactive strategy
Our campaign is created to spread awareness to parents and children that
are 8 years old up to 16 year old teenagers about obesity and overweight,
specifically to encourage children to start engaging in more physical activities
instead of spending hours playing video games. The first strategy that our
campaign is planning to use is to reach schools. The plan is to increase physical
activities and emphasize sports and exercise including games that are
entertaining and fun and will motivate the kids to participate and enjoy their
time at the same time. Food is a very important element to decrease this
problem and guide parents and children to live a very healthy lifestyle. Schools
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should be educated and aware about the food they are providing and guided to
provide healthy choices, and educating schools is part of our campaigns strategy
to spread awareness and decrease obesity from an early age. Parents being
educated is a very important element, our campaign will create a program in
schools to educate parents and schedule different lectures to cover different
aspects to teach parents how to provide a healthy life style to their kids, control
the number of hours spent on video games and fight obesity.
Reactive strategy
Reactive strategy is prepared if parents were in denial and were not
accepting the idea that their kids need help and are not aware of how serious the
problem is, and if kids were not reacting to the program and refusing to
participate. Therefore we will use the shock strategy to alarm parents with the
true reality of their children’s condition. In this case our campaign will provide
solid proof and try to deliver the message to parents on how crucial the problem
is and how it could affect their kids in the future after a sufficient amount of
research is conducted in the matter. Using the help of doctors and nutritionist to
explain, educate and clear up the problem to parents to convince them to take
actions and change their children’s lifestyle and justify the reason why we
approached this matter with such apprehension because it’s a matter that
requires serious action. If the children refused to participate and make changes,
the plan is to change the routine of exercises and activities and provide physical
activities that are more creative and exciting that kids might response to, and
allowing kids to use their own imagination and translate their video games into
games that require physical activities.
Message source and spokesperson
To be able to educate parents and create awareness strong sources and
effective spokesperson is needed. A pediatrician from the Al Wasl Hospital
would will be giving lectures to parents in Arabic with of course translated facts
to be handed out in English and Arabic about obesity and how it is a major cause
of many diseases. In addition a children’s sports trainer will give lectures in
English to emphasize how physical activities is extremely important and crucial
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in a child’s day. A real example of a child that completed our program who
began overweight and used to spend most of his time inactive, but has faced this
problem and lost weight by decreasing the time spent indoors and substituting it
by exciting physical activities and exercise instead. The main spokesperson to
inspire kids will be a celebrity that is loved and known between our age group,
the famous local football player Ismaeel Mattar who will talk to the kids and will
give a training session of exercises to motivate and inspire the kids.
Message appeals
Our campaigns strategy is to use two different message appeals. The first
message appeal we will use to deliver the message is emotional appeal the
reason we would use this form of appeal is, “Pathos, also called the pathetic or
emotional appeals, persuades audiences by arousing the emotions”,(Lanham 74). The
problem of obesity at a young age will need the help of parents, therefore
emotional appeal to reach the parents and kids will be in our benefit to touch the
parent’s emotions and encourage them to join their kids and help them. The
second strategy our campaign will use is fear appeal. Since fear is known to be
one of the strongest emotions, it should impact the parents and children to be
aware of how serious and dangerous obesity is. This is stated through research, “The
meta-analysis suggests that strong fear appeals produce high levels of perceived
severity and susceptibility, and are more persuasive than low or weak fear appeals.
The results also indicate that fear appeals motivate adaptive danger control actions
such as message acceptance and maladaptive fear control actions such as defensive
avoidance or reactance” (Witte, 2011).
Verbal communication
Strong words and quotes such as “Joint problems -- overweight people are
more likely to get defects in load-bearing limbs” (Lang, 2011), will be used to
communicate to parents. Clear simple and effective language will be used in our
advertising, posters and brochures. Simple but effective quotes will be used,
quotes from the best nutritionist. Brochures will be distributed on parents that
will include advice and guidance to control kids activities and encourage them to
decrease the time spent on video games and substitute it by physical activities.
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Talks in both Arabic and English will be held and given by special trainers that
will work along side the children during their activities that will educate parents
how to control the number of hours that their kids spend on video games, and
how to encourage their kids to go out and play games that need physical actions.
There will be classes that will also educate parents to be able to create healthy
meals for their kids that will include healthy choices but is delicious at the same
time. In addition some lectures will be held by a spokesperson of the campaign
an example is the footballer Ismaeel Mattar to spread awareness between both
parents and kids about the side effects of being overweight and the lack of
exercise. Social media will be a part of our verbal communication strategy, face
book page and blogs will be created in both English and Arabic to provide a
space for parents to discuss and suggest new ideas and advice to other parents to
encourage their kids to participate and start adding physical activities on daily
basis.
Nonverbal communication
Nonverbal communication will be mostly used to reach kids since it is an
easier way for the kids to absorb and understand the problem through images and
symbols instead of verbal communication. Posters and images will be displayed to the
kids to spread awareness. Pictures of a child that suffers from being overweight, with
a picture of the same child after following a healthier life style looking much slimmer
and healthier. Some images of internal organs of people that suffer of obesity will be
displayed as well, to allow children to be able to see what really happens inside of
their bodies and how it is affecting their health. Music will be also one of our
campaigns strategies to encourage the kids in their exercise routines to create a fun
and exciting atmosphere. We will create a song made up of the sound clip of the
infamous video game “Super Mario” that will incorporate other current music sounds,
to be able to communicate and reach the kids indirectly and try to make the physical
exercises fun and entertaining for the kids. A logo will be also created for our
campaign. The logo will have been designed to express the purpose of our campaign,
which is creating a healthy lifestyle for our young generation. Example below:
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Pre-campaign:
Before launching our campaign, intensive research was made to be able to
pick the locations that our campaign will take place in. We looked through schools
and made research to be able to find the numbers and statistics that will help us make
the decisions. Some schools had a higher rate of obesity than other schools which
made it clear where our campaign should take place in and where our expertise will
be most needed. Our campaign has to first take permission from the government,
head masters of schools, and also the parents before launching the campaign. Letters
will be sent to parents through students to get permission and approval of parents to
start the campaign and the new programs in their children’s schools.
Press releases:
We will be sending out a press release specifically announcement releases that
will inform the audience about the campaign and will interest the anticipated
audience. A press release will be send to numerous newspapers to reach the
educational institutions, business institutions, and parents. To reach our targeted
audience we decided to send the press release to four newspapers AlBayan, Emarat
Alyoum, Gulf News, 7 Days. Our choices are local Arabic newspapers with mass
audience and are newspapers that are very common to the Arabic readers. Al Bayan
newspaper and Emarat Alyoum newspaper are Arabic newspapers that are very
popular in the UAE and have large audience. For English readers the choice of Gulf
news and 7days newspaper was made to send the press release. Gulf news is a very
popular and common English newspaper therefore it is to our benefit to send the press
release through Gulf news. 7 DAYS newspaper is a free of charge English newspaper
that is provided in many places such as work locations, universities, schools, petrol
stations, coffee shops, and restaurants that will help spread our press release and reach
our targeted audience.
Website:
Our campaign will create an internet homepage that will be very informative
and helpful and a way to communicate with the audiences that are interested in our
program. For parents that are interested in our campaign and program this website
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will provide information about our program, tips and advice to a healthier lifestyle for
their kids, and audio recordings of the lectures that our campaign will hold. Parents
will be able to participate and join the program easily through the website. It will be
an effective way of communication between the campaign and the targeted parents.
Buzz
Text messages through mobile phones will be sent to the parents in schools
about the launch of our campaign to create a buzz and directly reach our audience. In
addition, a face book page will be created to post effective images and videos and to
provide a space for our audience to communicate and share their suggestions and
opinions. There will also be a Blog that will be held by the campaign that will include
images, news, updates and information about our campaign.
Photos and Captions
Diagrams explaining the internal and future dieses caused by obesity will
allow us to gain more of an impact because visually to see what’s going on inside the
body may effect the children and parents to take action. And example is presented
below:
Images of showing the result after committing to having a healthier lifestyle to
encourage both parties that it is possible to loose weight.
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If children maintain the lifestyle they are currently living at the weight they are living
we will present to them images of themselves at the age of 40.
Hopefully the images presented will make parents and children aware of the
seriousness of the situation they are in and hopefully entrust us in taking action
towards their weight loss and improving their lifestyle.
Studio Interviews
An interview would be conducted with a certified pediatrician from Al Wasl
hospital in Dubai where questioned would be asked about over all children’s health.
Questions would be asked about the seriousness of being overweight and the multiple
diseases that would result from leading an unhealthy lifestyle. The interview would
be pre-recorded and aired as a few minute show where factual information would be
given out to viewers.
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Special Events
A sports day event before the launch of the campaign would allow us to
interact with our audience and gauge the level of fitness amongst the children. We
would also get the children excited about participating further in more active games.
This event would be held at the prime location of the campaign.
Distribution
To distribute the informational brochures we would give each student a
designated information pack that they can take away with them. And for the parents
and educational instructors we would give them at the end of the lecture session an
information pack that contains the key point mentioned by the speaker and
informational brochures.
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Schedule and Budget
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Evaluation plan
After having completed the entire set period of assigned activities and the
change of nutritional intake in both the educational institutions and households, we
would from a weigh in day for all who participated to monitor and document the
overall improvement.
To ensure this healthy lifestyle continues we will ask schools whether or not
that wish to implement the nutritional recipes into their menus. Moreover institutions
will be asked if they wish to incorporate more of an active program to keep children
active.
After the ending of the campaign the families and teachers will be able to
access further guiding on how to improve the lifestyle of their children online. This
way they will be able to reach our experts and upload improvements in their
children’s overall health and hopefully encourage other struggling families to stay
persistent.
References
• Al-haddad, F., Little, B., & Abdul Ghafoor, A. (2005, January). Childhood
obesity in united arab emirates schoolchildren: a national study. Retrieved
from http://www.fchs.ac.ae/fchs/uploads/Files/Semester%201%20-%202010-
2011/1972/Childhood%20Obesity%20UAE.pdf
• Jindal, N. (2010, July 12). Uae health ministry's anti-obesity programme
targets teens. Retrieved from
http://www.themedguru.com/20100712/newsfeature/uae-health-ministrys-anti-
obesity-programme-targets-teens-86137133.html
• Lang, K. (2011). The dangers of childhood obesity . Retrieved from
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Dangers-of-Childhood-Obesity&id=310534
• Lanham, Richard A. A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1967.
• Naidoo, A., & Moussly, R. (2009, December 13). Youth obesity the uae's
biggest problem. Retrieved from
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/education/youth-obesity-the-uae-s-big-
problem-1.552573
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• Witte, K. (2011). A meta-analysis of fear appeals: implications for effective
public health campaigns. Retrieved from
http://heb.sagepub.com/content/27/5/591.short
• Zaman, S. (2010, October 23). Inactive children in uae face heart disease risk.
Retrieved from http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/inactive-children-in-uae-
face-heart-disease-risk-1.700424
Image references:
• After few years:
http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/issues/Issue_318/picture.gif
• Before ad after pictures:
http://slimnirvana.com/images/Child%20Weight%20loss.jpg
• Diagram of the internal effect of obesity:
http://images.obesityhelp.com/uploads/cms/11323/complication-childhood-
obesity.jpg
• logo design:
http://www.stone-cross.info/cwlc/images/C4LIFE_SmallLogo.jpg
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