Who's Calling Me Fat? Or, How Columbia Got Its Obesity Prevention Campaign Back on Track
2013
This case study follows a campaign to prevent childhood obesity that, although well-intentioned, encountered community and national backlash for its stigmatizing messages and images. The case explores the decision-making processes of the campaign’s planning team—health and government officials, activists, experts, and marketers—as they develop a new approach that is both evidence-based and inclusive of community input. Through this case, students develop skills in designing a social marketing campaign that is informed by the evidence and attentive to ethical concerns in both its design and evaluation plan. This case is accompanied by a downloadable lesson plan that includes a homework assignment and in-class assignment instructions.
The case is one in a series of teaching cases developed by the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED), a graduate-level training initiative based at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Boston Children’s Hospital, to engage students in real-world dilemmas, problem solving, and teamwork to tackle current, high-impact issues in eating disorders prevention.
Who's Calling Me Fat? Or, How Columbia Got Its Obesity Prevention Campaign Back on Track
Source:
Weinberger E. Who’s Calling Me Fat? Or How Columbia Got its Obesity Prevention Campaign Back on Track. Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders, Harvard University 2013. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/striped/teaching-cases/whos-calling-me-fat.