Brittany Bivings

Case Analysis

Part One: Initiative and Action Overview

Since its founding in 2010, Michelle Obamas Lets Move campaign has worked to get

kids across the nation up off of their feet and moving to prevent childhood obesity. This

comprehensive initiative is based on five pillars: 1. Creating a healthy start for children, 2.

Empowering parents and caregivers, 3. Providing healthy food in schools, 4. Improving access to

healthy, affordable foods, 5. Increasing physical activity.

The initiative has encouraged kids to adopt healthy eating habits as a basis for a healthy

future and to increase their levels of physical activity. By providing helpful information, parents

are supported to do their part by establishing the right environments to prevent childhood

obesity. Through endorsements from the departments of Agriculture and Education and the

Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, schools have recreated student lunches to provide healthier

foods and eliminate bad alternatives. The initiative has also dedicated their efforts to making sure

families across the nation have easy access to healthier and more affordable nutrition options. By

reaching millions of kids and increasing their daily activity levels, todays children are growing

healthier in order to achieve their future dreams.

To launch the initiative, President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum for the

Task Force on Childhood Obesity. This executive order required a review of each child-nutrition

and physical activity program and an established plan for federal resources aimed towards

helping reach a national goal. Since its creation, the task force has done its own research to form

and send the Childhood Obesity report to the president. The departments of Agriculture,

Education, Labor, Health, and Human Services have also been involved to help establish various

acts and promote programs to support the initiative (Stolberg, 2010). Through the foundation of

the Lets Move initiative, the Affordable Care Act was established and includes the requirement

of health insurance plans to cover childhood obesity screening and counseling. A number of

public service announcements were released spreading the word of the NHL, MLB, NFL and

Disney to motivate kids stay active. Ten different programs have been established including:

Healthier US School Challenge, Chefs Move to Schools, Walmarts Nutrition Charter, Healthy

Weight Commitment Foundation, White House has a Kitchen Garden, Lets Move Outside, Safe

Routes to School, Lets Move Cities and Towns, Lets Move Faith and the Communities and State

Dinner.

Part Two: Action Planning Analysis

Objectives: The Lets Move campaign is based off of five pillars which are also reflected in the

objectives of the campaign. The objectives are to: 1. Decrease the amount of obese children in

America within a generation 2. Increase the number of parents/caregivers across the country who

help keep their children active and healthy 3. Provide healthy food in all schools across the

nation 4. Increase and improve access to healthy, affordable foods for each family in America 5.

Increase physical activity in children across the nation.

Key Publics:

Parents and caregivers

Messages:

Primary: By establishing a home environment based on healthy diet and activity, families are

healthier and children are not at risk for childhood obesity.

Secondary: Reducing the amount of time children spend inside playing video games or

watching televisions will prevent obesity. Overeating and bad habits have the tendency to start in

the home where children learn to adopt habits from their caregivers. Therefore, those caregivers

have the most influence over a childs development. By going to letsmove.gov parents can stay

informed and stay involved and keep kids active and healthy.

Strategies: A number of channels were used to target parents although they all were used to

motivate parents and caregivers to keep their kids active and healthy. The channels used were

television, YouTube, Disney, and major league sports like the MLB, NFL and the NBA

(Hellmich, 2011). This strategy was effective but I would have also used a different channel like

their opinion leaders to help target parents more effectively because mass media is not

persuasive.

Tactics: This public was reached through a series of PSAs broadcasted through the various

channels. Their series of Mom Was Here announcements sent the message to parents

informing them of different ways to improve their childrens health. Using the Ad Council as an

endorsement created more credibility for the ads. Saving money through these PSAs also

allowed more funds to go towards other tactics in the campaign. An action plan was created by

the organization providing their own strategies and tactics for parents to follow to buying and

cooking healthier meals, encouraging regular doctor visits and creative ways of keeping children

active.

Elected Officials

Messages:

Primary: Review respective programs and policies relating to child nutrition and physical

activity to develop a national plan to federal resources and set benchmarks towards reaching the

First Ladys national goal (Mitchell, 2010, p.1).

Secondary: The underlying message to the officials was that their influence directly impacts

the health of the children and that through their reviews and goals they can help establish the

right plan to better America. Michelle Obama presented many statistics including Obesity by

the numbers (or the obesity rates in America) and the history and implications of how children

are becoming obese and unhealthy.

Strategies: The first strategy used was to motivate elected officials to review their programs

and establish a national plan to decrease childhood obesity through the president of the United

States. Another strategy used was to encourage officials to create awareness about the issue of

childhood obesity through the White House.

Tactics: Elected officials were reached through an executive order by President Obama

which established the Task Force on Childhood Obesity. This triggering event empowered the

departments to collaborate and act to recreate programs tailored to childrens health. Another

tactic by Michelle Obama was to launch her initiative at the White House where she was joined

by the cabinet members, Members of Congress, local mayors from across the nation and other

nationwide elected officials. The event made national news and to the front of the White Houses

website news. Doing this was one of the most effective tactics because it effortlessly reached

elected officials across the country, opinion leaders, educators and organizations across the

country (The White House, 2010).

Schools and Educators

Messages:

Primary: Review and change (if needed) your lunches so that your students will be healthier

and less likely to become a victim of childhood obesity.

Secondary: Students who are offered fruits and vegetables each day are healthier then kids

who are not. Based on the food pyramid by the department of Agriculture offering more whole-

grain foods is also more beneficial. Limiting calories based on age and reducing fats and sodium

offered are also great ways to prevent child obesity and keeping students safe (Nelson, 2012).

These messages and a basic outline of what should and shouldnt be offered in school lunches

was presented to schools in order to motivate them to revamp their lunches. Although it was a

great message to send a rough menu or plan of what schools should offer, by thinking in terms of

issue management, it was a reach to extend guidelines while the entire food pyramid was being

reviewed by the department of Agriculture. A great message sent to schools was to set a good

example for the children by creating a healthy workplace.

Strategies: There were two strategies that were used to send the messages to get schools to

do what the campaign wanted them to. The first was to motivate schools to provide healthier

foods for their students through a series of programs. The second was to motivate schools to

provide healthier students through the department of Agriculture.

Tactics: By establishing the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast

Program and Chefs Move to Schools, schools were encouraged to participate to increase school

nutrition and real chefs were integrated into cafeterias. The critical tactic to increasing nutrition

lied within the department of Agricultures revision and new regulations of school lunch

standards. Action plans were devised to give to schools so they could follow the simple steps to

success. An action plan was created by the organization providing their own strategies and

tactics for schools to follow to providing healthier lunches, leading by example, and creating

healthy school environments.

Kids

Messages:

Primary: The main message sent to kids was to have fun being active and eating healthy.

Secondary: Secondary messages sent to the students included in campaign are to stay active

by moving each and every day, drinking lots of water, eating fruits and vegetables, helping in

the kitchen and overall being healthy so that they can achieve their dreams. Children who do

these things spend more time with the family and enjoy spending time together. Good foods

have everything your body needs including vitamins and minerals that bodies need to grow up

healthy.

Strategies: A number of channels were used to target children although they all were used

to motivate children to have fun being active and eating healthy. The channels used were mass

media, opinion leaders, organizations like the Boy and Girl Scouts of America, contests and

events and many others.

Tactics: PSAs were also used to target children to get up and get moving through

television. The partnership with opinion leaders and celebrities from various sports and

organizations to create PSAs also had a great influence on the childrens latent readiness to act.

The First Lady also launched a contest for students to get cooking in the kitchen and for the

winners from each state to be flown to the capital for State Dinner (Cohan, 2012). The Girl

Scouts C.E.O sent a news release detailing the adoption of the initiative into their organization

and into the daily lives of their scouts (Girl Scouts of America, 2011). Michelle Obama is so

serious about her campaign that she led by example by dancing with a field full of students in the

nations capital (Pierce, 2011). An action plan was created by the organization providing their

own strategies and tactics for kids to follow to eating healthier and creative ways to staying

active.

Health Care Providers

Messages:

Primary: Join Lets Move! to educate and support your patients in living healthier.

Secondary: Talking to your patients about the benefits of breast feeding and a childs first

foods and how they can foster the foundation for better health and future habits is important. As

a trusted and influential leader, prescribing activity and healthy habits to both parents and kids

will increase the number of healthy children and decrease the number of obese American

children.

Strategies: The main strategy to target health care providers was to motivate them to

integrate prescribing activity and healthy habits and BMI screenings into their patient visits

through the department of Health and Human Services. The second was to

Tactics: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services helped to establish the

Affordable Care Act that includes the requirement of health insurance plans to cover screenings

and patient counseling. Health care providers were also reached through news releases from the

department as well as direct contact through the departments communications teams to give

them new rules and guidelines for preventing childhood obesity (U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services, 2011). The tactics reaching health care providers were weak in the sense that

there were very few and weak. Most of the information was posted strictly on the Lets Move

website and not on many other health websites for immediate information or promotion. I was

also displeased that there was not an effective action plan given to health care providers on what

else they can do to help promote healthier eating. I would have created an action plan for health

care providers to implement in the office as well as providing them action plans or brochures to

give to their patients upon visits.

Works Cited

Cohan, J. (2012, May 22). First lady launches lunch contest for kids State Dinner. ABC News

Radio Online. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://abcnewsradioonline.com.

Girl Scouts of America. (2011, February). Girl scouts take action [Press release]. Retrieved from

http://www.girlscouts.org.

Hellmich, N. (2011, February 9). New public service ads help parents get kids on the move. USA

Today Online. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://www.usatoday.com/.

Mitchell, A. (2010, July 10). First ladys Lets Move campaign begins. MSNBC Online.

Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com.

Nelson, J. (2012, February 12). Will school lunch changes mean healthier kids. Mayo Clinic

Expert Blog. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://www.mayoclinic.com.

Pierce, T. (2011, May 3). Michelle Obama does the dougie with students as part of Lets Move.

The Los Angeles Times on the Web. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://latimes.com.

Stolberg, S. (2010, February 9). Michelle obama leads campaign against obesity. The

New York Times on the Web. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com.

The White House, Office of the First Lady. (2010, February). First Lady Michelle Obama

launches Lets Move: Americas move to raise a healthier generation of kids. Retrieved

May 23, 2012, from www.whitehouse.gov.

Thompson, K. (2012, February 9). Michelle Obama keeps moving with Lets Move. The

Washington Post Online. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://www.washingtonpost.com.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2011, February). Cambridge to become

nations newest Lets Move! city [Press release]. Retrieved from http://www.hhs.gov.