Big brands sign up to promote healthy eating – but is it enough?

Over 170 brands including Tesco, Diageo, Unilever and M&S  have signed up to the Government’s “Responsibility Deal” to promote healthy living, and have pledged to support responsible drinking and eating behaviour at home and work.

Pledges include reducing salt and trans-fats, printing calorie counts on menus, and clearer labelling to show alcohol units – but is this just tokenism? Will it really change behaviours and stem the growth in obesity and alcohol abuse that’s so endemic in the UK today? Or should our ‘big brands’ do more?

Read the full article in Marketing Week.

Nicki, Business Director

Trail Tales – walking can be fun!

The Ramblers, the Department of Health and Action for Children, wanted to develop a suite of motivational and educational materials to encourage regular independent walking close to home as part of everyday life for families with young children.

dbda designed and developed this colourfully engaging suite of printed Trail Tales materials for the Ramblers. The printed resources (18 story books, log book, stickers, walking guides and picture cards) were based on six walking themes, targeted at three age groups of pre-school and junior school children, their parents and carers and the Ramblers walking guides.

Through the summer of 2009 over 100 people from families across Barrow-in-Furness walked with the Ramblers at Action for Children Centres.

Here’s the story of one of the participants:

To find out more click here

The new ‘skinny’ Diet Pepsi – food or fashion?

This month Diet Pepsi’s new ‘skinny’ can will be available to consumers at a highstreet near you.

The ‘taller, sassier’ version of the traditional can was launched last month to coincide with Fashion Week “in celebration of beautiful, confident women”.

Personally, I’m not so sure that a can of popular fizz will quite do it for me, however PepsiCo’s Chief Marketing Officer,  Jill Beraud, said in statement, “Our slim, attractive new can is the perfect complement to today’s most stylish looks, and we’re excited to throw its coming-out party celebration of innovative design in the world”.

Whilst the design of the can has been praised by some branding experts, others including organisations such as The National Eating Disorders Association, are less enthusiastic about their ‘skinny is better’ pitch citing it as “thoughtless and irresponsible”.

Is this going a step too far? Is it clever or crass? Will Pepsi lovers and hip young things buy into the ‘skinny’ can? Hear what voluptuous actress Sofia Vergara has to say about it …

Nicki, Business Development, dbda

Does education reduce blood pressure?

Research published in the BMC Public Health Journal suggests a link between high levels of education and low blood pressure.

While The British Heart Foundation have acknowledged the link, they stress that the main factors are  socio-economic, with those staying in education longer much more likely to be in better paid jobs and in better health generally.

To view the full BBC article see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12577353

Check out Alzheimer’s ‘Brain Map’ for iPhone

Alzheimer’s Society iPhone app Brain Map has been developed so that everyone can learn more about the brain and dementia. You can snap a photo of your friend’s brain and then rotate our 3D model to examine the different parts of the brain and find out what each bit does.

What does the cerebellum control? Why is the brain stem so important? Just what is the limbic system? Find out the answers to all these questions and more by downloading our free Brain Map iPhone app.

Source: Alzheimer’s Society website – www.alzheimers.org.uk