Change4Life: UK's 2009 family health movement — clay characters, 413k families sign up

In 2009 Britain faced a forecast that by 2050 two-thirds of men and half of women could be clinically obese, at an estimated NHS cost of £50 billion. The Department of Health's answer was Change4Life: not a scare campaign, but a national 'movement' launched on 3 January 2009 telling families to eat well, move more and live longer.

The creative device was the opposite of the government leaflet. Aardman Animations — the studio behind Wallace & Gromit — built a family of brightly coloured plasticine characters that starred in TV, print and outdoor ads; a helpline staffed by trained advisers and a website pulling together 45,000+ healthy-living projects turned the ads into a route into action.

Instead of preaching, the campaign enlisted the institutions families already trusted: Tesco, Asda, Coca-Cola, Mars, Nestlé, Cadbury and more signed on as partners, 44% of randomly sampled schools, GP surgeries and community venues displayed materials, and NHS staff ordered over six million items of campaign material. For every £1 the government spent, partners spent £3 building momentum.

By its first anniversary the campaign reported it had surpassed all year-one targets: 99% of targeted families reached, 413,466 families joined — more than double the 200,000 goal — and one million mums said they had changed their children's behaviour. A Tesco Clubcard basket analysis even found signed-up families shifting toward low-fat milk and low-sugar drinks.