Change4Life

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Change4Life is a new health initiative which, according to the Department of Health (DoH)website, aims to

improve children’s diets and levels of activity so reducing the threat to their future health and happiness. Our goal is to help every family in England eat well, move more and live longer.[1]

The Change4Life section of the Department of Health's website contains more details on the initiative however, the vast majority of this detail appears to involve the use of the Change4Life logo and marketing and branding issues. There does not appear to be any substance as to what the initiative actually is or how it differs from previous and current Department of Health anti-obesity measures. [2]


Funding

The bulk of the funding for the Change4Life initiative appears to be coming from the advertising industry who are reputed to be injecting £200 million into the project in various forms via Business4Life a coalition of various food and advertising businesses.[3] The Government has pledged £30 million towards the initiative although this is part of the £372 million pledged by the Department earlier this year to tackle obesity. [4]


Advertising

On May 23 2008, it was announced that M & C Saatchi had won the advertising contract, worth £75 million, for change4life.[5]

The director of marketing within the Department of Health was Andrew Brent who had previously worked for Boots and Burger King. Brent left the DoH in September, after only five months, to join BSkyB as a group brand marketing director.BSkyB is one of the member organisations of Business4Life. During his time at the DoH Brent was in charge of hiring M & C Saatchi, direct marketing specialist EHS Brann and media agency Manning Gottlieb OMD. [6]


Discord

There has been some discord within the DoH at the use of the private sector in the Change4Life initiative. When the Advertising Association (AA) initially announded its £200 million pledge of marketing support in July, a DoH spokesperson stated that the announcment had taken the department by surprise and that the AA had "jumped the gun". [7] Baroness Peta Buscombe ,the then chief executive of the AA, replied by stating that: "I don't know why they are saying that. We have been planning the announcement with them for months." [8] Brent was quoted as playing down these differences and stated that "In any organisation you get differences of opinion. If you are working in a big company, these are expressed internally and don't get announced externally. In government, things get picked up and reported by the media.". [9]



Notes

  1. ↑ Department of Health Change4Life, Accessed December 4 2008
  2. ↑ Department of Health Change4Life,Accessed December 4 2008
  3. ↑ Whitehall pages Change4Life, Accessed December 2008
  4. ↑ Department of Health Healthy Weight,Healthy lives A Cross Government strategy for England,Accessed December 4 2008
  5. ↑ M & C Saatchi M&C Saatchi 75m DoH anti-obesity account,Accessed December 17 2008
  6. ↑ Marketing Week [Marketing in the Public Sector], September 18 2008, Accessed December 17 2008
  7. ↑ MAD Department of Health hits out at announcement, Accessed December 17 2008
  8. ↑ Marketing Week [Marketing in the Public Sector], September 18 2008, Accessed December 17 2008
  9. ↑ Marketing Week [Marketing in the Public Sector], September 18 2008, Accessed December 17 2008
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