It’s so hard to get people to exercise, they say. But I think it might be because they’re going about it the wrong way.
I’d like to draw an analogy, between the effort to get people to start exercising, and the effort to get people to stop smoking.
The anti-smoking effort has had a tremendous impact on public health within the past fifty years, and had a HUGE impact on health between the years 1947-1974.
As Kenneth Warner, PhD, points out in his article (warning, this hot-link will start a download of the article) “The Effects of the Anti-Smoking Campaign On Cigarette Consumption” – “Cigarette smoking is generally acknowledged to be one of the leading causes of preventable morbidity and mortality” (pg. 645).
But the details are what matter. Here’s Dr. Warner’s footnote:
“The anti-smoking “campaign” is not a single orchestrated program. The term is used here to refer to the collective, mostly uncoordinated activities of a variety of organizations, including government agencies, private voluntary agencies, and for-profit business firms, united only by their objective of encouraging people to quit or to reduce smoking. The 1964 “starting point” for the campaign is somewhat arbitrary; it was selected because the Surgeon General’s Report initiated the first period of significant sustained anti-smoking activity and public consciousness of smoking and health issues. During the early 1950s, evidence linking smoking to disease produced the first smoking-health “scare” in recent history, but a major sustained anti-smoking campaign did not materialize.”
Ok, that’s great! Well, the Surgeon General released a (another download link here) report on Exercise. Read it and weep! Does that mean we’ll all start exercising?!
As Dr. Wagner points out, part of the impact was due to publicized “health scares” that cigarettes cause cancer. Then came the Surgeon General’s Report. Then, states began to tax cigarettes (or tax them more heavily).
On the last page of his research, Dr. Wagner makes a couple of points that I think are most salient. The first is that the radio ads that were most effective were repetitive in nature. There wasn’t a one-time event, but several repeated messages.
The second point is that the anti-smoking ads were much more effective than the pro-smoking ads produced by the cigarette companies.
The anti-smoking groups were able to produce these ads thanks to something called “The Fairness Doctrine,” which “required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was (in the Commission’s view) honest, equitable and balanced.” [Note, that doctrine was vetoed in 1987, and has not been reintroduced].
What’s important there, though, is the idea of repetition. Repetition, as they say, is the mother of learning. It is also the bread-and-butter of advertising and marketing. Everyone in sales knows “it takes seven no’s to get to a yes.”
The second point, though, is the one that I think is most important.
People love to be AGAINST things. ANTI anything always stirs up more energy, people, and effort, than “pro” anything. Think about it. Who are always the more energetic, the more violent, the more hostile? It’s the ANTI guys. It’s the Dark Side of the Human Force. It’s where the Power lurks.
Yes, we try to fight it, but why? Why not admit it. If you want to WIN, you must be AGAINST something!
So perhaps we’re going about this exercise thing all wrong.
Instead of being “pro-fitness,” we need to be “anti-fatness.” We need to be “anti-laziness.” We need some “anti-out-of-shapeness.”
While cigarettes are deadly, physical inactivity is devastating.
The World Health Organization recognizes that “Globally, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are increasingly recognized as a major cause of morbidity and mortality. The World Health Report 2004 had indicated that NCDs account for almost 60% of deaths and 47% of the global burden of disease.”
What’s included in the risk factors of NCDs? How about:
- Alcohol and alcohol-related illnesses
- Blood pressure
- Cholesterol
- Diet
- Overweight and Obesity
- (lack of) Physical Activity
- Smoking
- Diabetes
- Oral health
- Visual Impairment
At least six of the above factors can be mitigated through regular, vigorous, healthy physical activity.
So I’d like to issue a warning. You can print this out and put it on anything you like – the TV, the sofa, the Wii, the computer, the fridge…
