The Department of Health and Human Services partners with the Ad Council to address obesity prevention with a national ad campaign.

New York ad agency McCann-Erickson agrees to create the campaign pro-bono and develops a strategy based on qualitative research methods and findings...{{more}}

The creative team (copywriters and art directors) at McCann Erickson are briefed on the strategy.

The creative team presents two ideas:

• The small steps idea (http://www.adcouncil.org/campaigns/healthy_lifestyles/)
• A campaign in which people grew progressively heavier as they demonstrated/perpetuated an unhealthy behavior...{{more}}

The Ad Council conducted "communication check" focus groups with the target audience of "family builders" while the ads were still at the conceptual stage. After revisions and approvals by an Ad Council creative advisory committee and HHS staff, the PSAs were created.

HHS and the Ad Council launches its campaign in March 2004, coinciding with the publication of a new study by the CDC reporting that 400,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2000 (17 percent of all deaths) were related to poor diet and physical inactivity, which may "soon overtake tobacco as the leading cause of death." (source: Ad Council news release, March 9, 2004.)...{{more}}

Companies (ABC Television Network, FOX, PBS, NBC, CBS, Clear Channel Communications and the Turner Networks) commit to donate air-time to screen the PSAs, including slots in primetime.

The Ad Council measures its success based on:

• (a) the levels of donated media (using a formula to determine what a donated placement of an ad was "worth")
• (b) the dollar equivalents of press coverage the campaign receives
• (c) response to the advertised toll-free number and website
• (d) pre- and post-campaign launch tracking studies among the target audience, measuring awareness of the communications, attitude changes, behavior changes (using transtheoretical model) and recall of PSAs...{{more}}