Change4Life

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.

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.

Alan Johnson made a written statement to the House of Commons on November 11 2008 which outlined the details on the Change4Life intiative. Johnson described the initiative as "a lifestyle revolution which will help families eat well, move more and live longer. Under the banner Change4Life, the Government are aiming to galvanise support from everyone in the country from grass-roots organisations to leading supermarkets and charities.".

Funding

The bulk of the funding for the Change4Life initiative comes from a coalition of food retailers and manufacturers and media companies. A total of 33 companies, liaising with the Government through the Advertising Association's Business4Life coalition, have pledged to deliver a "media equivalent value" of £200 million of in-kind contribution. The Advertising Association is a federation of trade bodies and organisations representing the advertising and promotional marketing industries. 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.

Advertising

On May 23 2008, it was announced that M & C Saatchi had won the advertising contract, worth £75 million, for Change4Life.

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.

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". 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." 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.".