The first outdoor advertisement promoting healthy eating as part of Lewisham Council’s campaign to drive down childhood obesity was unveiled on 10 September in Lewisham town centre.
The poster, aimed at making vegetables appealing to children, was designed by Destiny Wacha, a pupil at St James Hatcham Primary School in New Cross. It was the winning entry of a borough-wide school competition.
Since 2016 the council has been implementing a whole systems approach to respond to the challenge of childhood obesity in the borough. This includes the key intervention campaigns Sugar Smart Lewisham and The Daily Mile.
Earlier this year, Lewisham Council was chosen as one of five local authorities to be part of the Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Programme (COTP). The council was awarded £100,000 worth of funding and project support per year for three years to promote reducing childhood obesity, working with Out-of-Home companies to promote healthy eating through advertising campaigns. This work is being supported through a unique partnership with outdoor advertising companies, JCDecaux and Outsmart.
Cllr Chris Best, Deputy Mayor of Lewisham and Cllr Chris Barnham, Cabinet Member for School Performance, joined Destiny and representatives from JCDecaux and Outsmart to reveal her winning design work which has been turned into a high-profile advert.
It’s fantastic to see the start of this innovative approach to supporting the council’s commitment to tackling childhood obesity. With nearly one in five children obese or overweight when they start reception, it is vital that we do everything we can to tackle obesity and its inherent health inequalities. I want to thank Destiny for her design – it’s great to see the talent of young people helping to promote this important message. We’re also grateful that leading advertisers JCDecaux and Outsmart are supporting our work to help residents make positive choices that will impact on child obesity rates.Cllr Chris Best, Deputy Mayor of Lewisham
JCDecaux UK is delighted to support this important initiative, using our digital Out-of-Home bus shelter network to reach people out and about in Lewisham. This is a wonderful creative, from a talented young artist and we look forward to seeing it displayed across the borough from today.Andrew Jordan, Partnership Director at JCDecaux UK
Outsmart is proud to be a part of this. As a public broadcast medium Out-of-Home advertising is a powerful tool to promote community messaging that positively shapes behaviours and helps reduce child obesity rates.Tim Lumb, Director of Outsmart
