Obesity Social Media Campaign
Obesity in the United States has been rising steadily since 1960. Obesity, which is defined by having a Body Mass Index of 30 or higher, is now affecting Americans in epidemic proportions. According to the CDC, 36.5 % of adult Americans are obese (CDC, 2016). The Obesity epidemic is no longer only affecting adults, 17% that equates to approximately 12.7 million children and adolescents are now affected (CDC, 2017).
Target Audience
The goal of this campaign, via the use of social media, is targeted toward adults, children, and adolescents that fall into the overweight category as defined by the CDC. In order to target this group, first, we must define what being overweight is. The CDC uses a tool to calculate this
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According to a study published in the Journal of Health Communications, Internet weight loss communities, especially communities, which are free and available to anyone, play a large role in participation and successful weight loss efforts. Social media and Internet support was found to have the same advantages of face-to-face support (Hwang et al., 2011).
Social Media Con
Not everything you read on the Internet is true. Social Media has a way of spreading false information. Unfortunately, untrue information about fake or unhealthy diet trends and exercise trends are abundant on the Internet. This campaign will need to be monitored closely for activity that crosses into the boundary of spreading miss information in posts or linking information that is not fact checked or supported with valid research. This will be a fine line and difficult to control. Over control of the Social Media Tool will cause people to not use it and failure to control it will cause people not to trust it as being credible. The CDC recommends developing a comment policy, which would include inappropriate comments and how to handle posting of incorrect information (CDC, 2010) by having these policies and practices in place before an issue comes up will provide the structure to maintain the sites