We’ve used the 10 year anniversary of LiveLighter®, a healthy lifestyle program delivered in partnership with WA Health, to launch a ground-breaking new public education campaign that aims to encourage and motivate West Australians to reduce their consumption of junk food, including sugary drinks and sweet snacks.
While almost nine out of ten West Australians are aware that carrying excess body fat is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes and heart disease, as few as five in ten are aware that this is also a risk factor for cancer. LiveLighter® recently launched ‘Reverse’, a new campaign that informs the WA community of the link between higher body weight and cancer to support people to lead healthier lives.
The Campaign
The graphic Reverse TV ad begins inside the body, showing internal organs with toxic fat and cancer growth. The camera travels up through the oesophagus and out of the mouth, revealing people eating junk foods and drinking sugary drinks. Alternative versions of the ad show the camera leaving the mouth with healthy options being consumed instead. These ads ‘reverse’ the usual sequence of similar behaviour change commercials seen on television.
The internal footage shown in the TV ad is computer generated imagery (CGI), created by a specialist video effects company. A local Western Australian gastrointestinal surgeon was consulted during production to ensure the imagery was a realistic representation of what stomach cancer can look like.
Melissa Ledger, our Cancer Prevention and Research Director, highlights that 10 years on from the first LiveLighter® campaign, it is still vitally important that public education campaigns, such as the new campaign Reverse, continue to support the community and policy makers to keep health and wellbeing top of mind.
“LiveLighter® was established in 2012 with the goal of helping people to eat well, be physically active and avoid excess weight gain,” she said
“We know the LiveLighter® message is getting through, with a recent study finding that, on average, people have 1.7 less serves of junk foods and drinks each week that the campaign is on air.
“While encouraging individuals to adopt healthier behaviours is one part of the solution, we know that people can’t go it alone. To build on the success of the campaign, we need urgent government action to create healthier and more liveable communities, starting with the removal of junk food advertising from government owned property.”
LiveLighter®’s recommendations to live healthier:
The LiveLighter® website has loads of tips and free tools to help you start making healthy changes today.
- Eating well and being active can help you stop gaining weight or lose weight to reduce your risk of cancer. These things will also improve your health and reduce your risk of cancer, regardless of whether or not your weight changes!
- While many people find weight loss difficult, avoiding further weight gain is a worthwhile goal that will reduce your risk of future health issues.
- A healthy diet is a diet rich in minimally processed whole foods such as vegetables, fruit, wholegrains, and legumes.
- Junk foods, sugary drinks, highly processed foods, and foods high in added sugar, salt, or saturated fat are unhealthy for our bodies.
- Making small and sustainable changes can have a big positive impact on your health.
More information
- Find out more about LiveLighter®
- Email the LiveLighter® team for resources and more information