Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced the launch of a national $190 million multicultural media campaign designed to promote a healthier lifestyle for kids. The "VERB: It's What You Do" Youth Media Campaign (YMC) will use television, radio spots and the Internet to reach youth all across the country.
"Our goal is for the VERB campaign to motivate and inspire our children to get active and involved -- and to have fun doing so," Secretary Thompson said. "Too many of our children are sitting around, and their inactivity is leading to serious health problems such as overweight, obesity, and diabetes. Our kids need to be kids and be active. We need to get our children away from the Play Station and onto the playground. By doing so, our children will live healthier and grow into stronger adults."

The campaign encourages 9-13 year olds, known in marketing terms as "tweens" to find a VERB (such as run, paint, sing, bowl, etc.) or several VERBs that fit their personality and interests. The campaign then encourages tweens to use "their VERB" as a launching pad to become active and involved and to make regular physical activity and healthy behaviors a lifetime pursuit.

The campaign also addresses the multitude of entertainment choices available to kids today -- such as video games, Internet surfing, and television -- and offers them better alternatives. Currently, tweens spend an average of four and a half hours each day in front of a variety of screens: including television, video games and computers.

Secretary Thompson said. "What we need, however, is a fresh approach to good health. We need to make it fun and achievable. We need to stop the guilt-ridden lectures and start showing adults and children the enjoyable and doable steps they can take to better health. That's what 'VERB' does-- it lets kids decide what positive activity they want to do and encourages them to do it."

Children who are engaged in positive activities are better able to meet the demands of daily physical activity, gain greater self-esteem, confidence and discipline, school achievement, social connectedness and positive family relationships than their sedentary peers.

The campaign will focus on getting children excited about increasing the amount of physical and "prosocial" activity in their lives, while helping parents, coaches and teachers see the importance of physical and prosocial activity to the overall health of tweens. Prosocial activity is defined by the campaign as getting kids involved with positive organizations or groups, such as school clubs, community groups or religious organizations.
MOCAH's participation in this campaign includes a series of sidewalk mural projects involving seven local middle schools in the greater Houston area. The (20) VERB designs below are indicative of the images to be painted on sidewalks in front of and around the selected middle schools. Several lead artists from MOCAH will work with students from each school to paint the sidewalk murals