July 18, 2002 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Young teens are being encouraged to get up and do something - just about anything - in hopes of increasing physical activity and taking a bite out of childhood obesity.
The $190 million, two-year media campaign is dubbed "VERB: It's What You Do," and the idea is to encourage "tweens" - that's kids ages 9 to 13 - to pick an activity and do it.
"Verb means action, and action is the focus of this campaign," said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.
"We want tweens to identify with a verb that appeals to them and put it into action in a fun and healthy way," he said. "It can be sports. It can be fishing. It can be volunteering for a community group. It can be anything that gets them moving."
The campaign plans to use television and radio commercials as well as the Internet. Ads began airing in June. Officials plan to spend about $65 million of the budget on TV ads over the next year.
HHS estimates that children in this age group spend an average of four and a half hours each day in front of a screen, watching TV, playing video games or working on computers.
In 1999, 13 percent of all children and teenagers were overweight, and the number of overweight teens has tripled since 1980. At the same time, incidents of Type 2 diabetes, once unheard of in children, is increasing dramatically among adolescents.
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
