New Campaign Calls for Junk
Food and Sugary Drinks to be Removed From Children’s Lives in Mexico, Where,
Without Action, 1/3 Will Develop Diabetes
Wednesday,
February 18, 2015
Policy measures and behavior change needed to
protect future generations from a lifetime of obesity and illness
(Mexico
City, Mexico and New York, United States) – World Lung Foundation (WLF) today
congratulated the Mexican civil society network, the Alliance for Healthy Food,
on the launch of the second phase of its childhood obesity prevention mass
media campaign. This new, provocative campaign, called What did your
children eat today?, has been designed to raise awareness that one-third of
Mexican children will develop diabetes during their lifetime, largely because
of their consumption of junk food and sugary drinks, and to call for the
removal of all junk food and related marketing from children’s lives. WLF
provided technical assistance on the design and development of the campaign,
which will run on radio, out of home media, and the subway in Mexico City, as
well as social and digital media.
The Alliance for
Healthy Food (http://alianzasalud.org.mx)
The
campaign’s print ad shows a young girl surrounded by junk food and sugary
drinks, alluding to the fact that Mexican children are constantly exposed to
these products and the marketing of these products, increasing the likelihood
of children consuming unhealthy foods. A red banner at the top of the ad
highlights the shocking fact that one in three Mexican children will suffer
from diabetes during their lives and the campaign slogan, Let’s remove all
junk food from their world, is a call to act in children’s best interests.
The campaign is targeted at parents and guardians, to persuade them to make
better dietary choices for their children and to be active participants in
calling for healthy environments for children. It is also targeted at
policymakers who can fully implement and enforce existing school food
legislation as well as frame new legislation to stop the pervasive junk food
and sugary drink advertising that targets Mexican children and to introduce
effective, comprehensive food labels for Mexican consumers. Mexico’s
recently-introduced “Soda Tax” is showing that health taxes encourage consumers
to change their behaviour, but food and beverage companies have been using
commercial strategies and legal complaints to try to block and circumvent full
national implementation of the “Soda Tax” and “Snack Tax”, as well as other
health policies aimed at curbing overweight and obesity.
Sandra
Mullin, Senior Vice President, Policy and Communications, World Lung
Foundation, commented: “No-one would wish to place a child at risk of a
lifetime of illness, economic harm and premature death. This campaign makes it
clear that by facilitating consumption of junk food and sugary drinks, parents,
guardians and policymakers are doing exactly that. It will take a concerted
effort by all these stakeholders to reverse a situation where poor dietary
habits are leaving one in three Mexican children with a lifetime risk of
developing diabetes. Alarmingly, the incidence of children developing type 2
diabetes – normally found in adults – is also increasing in many countries
around the world, including Mexico.
“While
parents can make a difference by being good role models and by providing
healthy food and drink choices inside the home, we also encourage the Mexican
government to strengthen its efforts to combat this public health crisis. This
includes standing firm against the lobbying tactics and threatening words of
Big Food and Big Soda, aimed at preventing the passage, implementation and
enforcement of rigorous laws, regulations and policies to help curb overweight,
obesity and diabetes. We would also encourage comprehensive restrictions on the
marketing of junk food and sugary drinks – particularly when it’s targeted at
children. Government could enforce school lunch policies and restrict the sale
of junk food and sugary drinks near schools and other child-centric
environments to improve the diets of school-age children. Government could also
improve food labelling so that it is informative and understandable, to further
demonstrate its determination to tackle obesity at a national level.
“Urgent
and aggressive action is the only way to prevent Mexico’s children from having
a shorter life expectancy than their parents. We applaud the Alliance for
Healthy Food for raising Mexico’s awareness of this health crisis and for
trying to create an environment in which Mexican children are free of the junk
food and sugary drinks that are detrimental to their present and future
well-being.”
On behalf
of the Alliance for Healthy Food, Alejandro Calvillo of the consumer rights
organization El Poder del Consumidor commented, “Government officials
and legislators have a decisive role to play everywhere in safeguarding the
future of children. When children see junk food and its pervasive marketing in
every corner of their environment, and when the government and educators fail
to inform consumers and children of the health risks of certain foods, we are
failing our children.”
The
concept of What did your children eat today? was pre-tested with
audiences to determine the effectiveness of the campaign’s ability to grab the
viewer’s attention, its personal relevance, the strength of the take-away
message and its likely impact. An evaluation of a previous campaign, Don’t
harm yourself drinking sugary drinks (Sugary Drinks), found that
three-quarters of respondents said they intended to reduce their children’s
consumption of sugary drinks after seeing the ad. Two-thirds of respondents
agreed that sugary drinks are bad for health. The Sugary Drinks campaign
informed the public of the health risks associated with their consumption and
built support for legislation to introduce a national tax on sugary drinks in
Mexico.
The
Bloomberg Philanthropies Obesity Prevention Program provided funding and
support for the launch of the campaign, and supported World Lung Foundation’s
technical support.
The toll of obesity on health and the economy
According
to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Mexico has the world’s highest
rate of adult obesity, with one third of all adults obese. One-third of
children and seventy percent of adults are overweight or obese. This has
resulted in an alarming increase in the incidence of non-communicable diseases
(NCDs), which experts believe will result in the current generation of Mexican
children being the first to enjoy a shorter life expectancy than their parents.
It is estimated that 14 percent of Mexican adults have diabetes; Mexico has the
sixth-highest incidence of diabetes-related mortality in the world, claiming
half a million lives during the last six years.
The
Mexican President, the National Academy of Medicine and the Secretary of Health
all recognize that such a high incidence of overweight and obesity is one of
Mexico’s greatest public health problems. Obesity and diabetes cost the public
health sector more than 40 billion pesos a year. The total costs of obesity in
Mexico were estimated at US$5.5bn in 2008 and are estimated to reach US$12.5bn
per year by 2017 (USD conversions from pesos are variable according to the
exchange rate). As diabetes takes its toll on the country’s poorest families,
who make up the majority of the population, the sustainability of the nation’s
public health system and the nation’s economy both are jeopardized. These
issues motivated the government to announce its National Strategy for the
Prevention and Control of Overweight, Obesity and Diabetes in 2013. Public
health advocates in Mexico welcomed the Strategy as an important first step in
addressing this public health crisis, but believe that much more needs to be
done to stop the rising trends of obesity and diabetes among the Mexican
population.
About the Alliance for Healthy Food in Mexico
In August
2012, concerned about staggering rates of malnutrition and obesity in Mexico
and serious deterioration of healthy eating habits, more than 20 public
interest organizations and social movements, together with academics, created a
national coalition called the Alianza por la Salud Alimentaria (the
Alliance for Healthy Food). This alliance of producers, consumers, nutrition,
development and environmental experts advocates for comprehensive policies to
restore healthy eating habits and environments, and to combat all forms of
malnutrition including obesity. The Alliance’s manifesto explains the need for
action in defense of public interest on eight priority policy issues including
compulsory access to purified free drinking water, healthy food and drinks in
schools, clear food labeling, protection of children from targeted marketing,
fiscal measures on junk foods, access to affordable, fresh food and promotion
of breastfeeding. The What did your children eat today? campaign is one
of several social marketing campaigns that the Alliance has sponsored to date.
For more information, please visit http://alianzasalud.org.mx or @actuaporlasalud on Twitter
About
World Lung Foundation
World
Lung Foundation was established in response to the global epidemic of lung
disease, which kills 10 million people each year. The organization also works
on maternal and infant mortality reduction initiatives. WLF improves global
health by improving local health capacity, by supporting operational research,
by developing public policy and by delivering public education. The
organization’s areas of emphasis are tobacco control, maternal and infant
mortality prevention, tuberculosis, asthma, and child lung health. For more
information, please visit worldlungfoundation.org or twitter @worldlungfdn
For more
information, please contact:
Tracey Johnston, World Lung Foundation at tjohnston@worldlungfoundation.org
Tracey Johnston, World Lung Foundation at tjohnston@worldlungfoundation.org
Original
Link Below:
Citation:
Johnston, T. (2015, February 8). New Campaign Calls for Junk Food and
Sugary Drinks to be Removed From Children’s Lives in Mexico, Where, Without
Action, 1/3 Will Develop Diabetes. Retrieved November 17, 2015, from
http://www.worldlungfoundation.org/ht/display/ReleaseDetails/i/35625/pid/6858
Citation:
Johnston, T. (2015, February 8). New Campaign Calls for Junk Food and
Sugary Drinks to be Removed From Children’s Lives in Mexico, Where, Without
Action, 1/3 Will Develop Diabetes. Retrieved November 17, 2015, from
http://www.worldlungfoundation.org/ht/display/ReleaseDetails/i/35625/pid/6858
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