Full article published: January 2 2009:
http://link.ft.com/r/FG6LAA/CPATQ/WAFE/N8LPD/YARFH/B7/t
One of the more ambitious attempts to change a nation's lifestyle is
launched [today] with the start of a three-year campaign between UK
government, the food and fitness industries and charities to tackle
the rising tide of obesity.

The campaign, which is branded "Change4Life", kicks off with £8m
worth of television advertisements that will feed into a wide range
of initiatives to get people eating better and exercising more. Some
of the initiatives will be supported by the very businesses whose
products contribute most to the problem when over-consumed.

The health department has a £75m budget over three years for a
campaign which will generate more than £200m of supportive activity
from industry, according to "Business4Life", a coalition of food,
drink, retail and fitness providers formed by the Advertising
Association.

Dawn Primarolo, the public health minister, said the aim was "a
lifestyle revolution" on a scale "no government has attempted before"
in the face of projections that 90 per cent of today's children would
become overweight adults.

The health department, she said, had tried to learn from campaigns
such as Make Poverty History and Comic Relief by bringing in a wide
range of partners to spread a message intended to encourage people to
change their behaviour rather than lecture them on what to do and
what to eat.

The government advertisements are backed by a website, a telephone
help-line and advisers whom the department says can put callers in
touch with more than 45,000 contacts from local council and fitness
centres, to cookery clubs and after-school and sporting activities.
The big cancer and heart disease charities will also support the
campaign in their advertising.