Santa Clara County & Better World Advertising Tackle Obesity

Contact: David Contois
415-979-9775
Davidc@socialmarketing.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Santa Clara County & Better World Advertising Tackle Obesity
Shifting consumption of sugary drinks to healthier alternatives, like water.

Santa Clara County, CA (October 26, 2011) – Better World Advertising (BWA) has been selected to work with Santa Clara County, CA to develop and implement a communications plan and a social marketing campaign for obesity prevention targeting children. This campaign is the communications and media services component of Santa Clara County Public Health Department’s “Communities Putting Prevention to Work- Obesity Prevention (CPPW-OP)” initiative, administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The goal of this two-year grant is to reduce risk factors, prevent/delay chronic disease and promote wellness in children and adults through focus on policy, system, and environmental changes.

The 2010 Health Profile report for Santa Clara County revealed that 50 percent of adults and 1 in 4 children are overweight or obese. These numbers are important because obesity has been shown to lead to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and other chronic diseases.

BWA is a national leader in social marketing, with over 15 years experience producing media campaigns and communications materials for federal agencies such as the FDA and CDC, as well as dozens of state and local health departments. BWA has won numerous awards for excellence in marketing communications and advertising, as well as recognition from Graphic Design USA and the American Public Health Association.

The overall grant provides support for more than 50 community organizations to tackle obstacles to good health, including expanding access and acceptance of EBT/CalFresh (formerly known as Food Stamps in California) in cities, retail locations, and farmers’ markets and supporting organizational policy changes that promote healthy eating and physical activity in childcare sites, schools, faith-based and youth-based organizations, and worksites. This portion of the initiative will promote the decreased consumption of drinks with large amounts of sugar through expansion of the Rethink Your Drink Campaign, launched in 2007 in Alameda County. The Rethink Your Drink Campaign is designed to move an individual’s focus from sugar-sweetened beverage consumption to healthier alternatives, such as water.

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Better World Advertising is one of the nation’s most respected social marketing agencies. Since 1996 BWA has created more than 150 media campaigns throughout the U.S. and Canada. Headquartered in San Francisco with an office in New York City, BWA only works with nonprofit organizations, government agencies and universities. BWA specializes in full service social marketing campaigns with expertise in formative research, message development, branding, media strategy and buying, graphic and web design, TV, radio and print production, educational materials development, public relations and campaign evaluation.