Impact Data - VERB Campaign

The VERB campaign was a multiethnic social marketing campaign that combined paid advertisements with school and community promotions and internet activities to encourage children 9 to 13 years of age to be physically active every day. Launched in 2002 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), VERB used commercial marketing methods to advertise being physically active as cool, fun, and a chance to have a good time with friends. The campaign ran from 2002 through September 2006 when funding was not continued. The evaluations being summarised here focus on a selected time frame within the ongoing VERB campaign; it involved paid advertising using the VERB brand that ran nationally from June 2002 through June 2004.

VERB was based on the premise that a physically active lifestyle, if established at this young age, could lessen the decline in physical activity typically seen in the high school years, especially among girls. (Self-reported data indicate that almost one quarter of children 9 to 13 years of age engage in no free-time physical activity during a typical week, and approximately one third of high school students are insufficiently physically active - with girls less active than boys and Hispanic and black high school students less active than their white peers). In addition, the CDC reasons, active children are more likely to become active adults, which could have with immediate and long-term health benefits, including weight control, lower blood pressure, bone health, and enhanced psychological well-being.