Obesity TV strategy launched

A series of television adverts aimed at highlighting the dangers of obesity have been launched today by the Department of Health.

Set to run for three months, they will target those in the UK who may need to know more about the potentially fatal effects of too much fat in the body.

Part of the Change4Life campaign, the advertisements were created by Aardman Animations, which many people will know as the company behind classic characters Wallace and Gromit.

The scheme follows a report published last year which advised the government that unless action was taken, consumers could be “sleepwalking” towards a crisis, the BBC reported.

It also predicted that nine in ten children would be overweight or obese by the year 2050.

“This is the last chance the government have got to make something work – if it doesn’t work then there’s nothing else one can do,” Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum told the BBC.

“In the end I think legislation will be required if we’re going to nail the problem of obesity,” he added.

The Department of Health describes the issue of obesity as a “highly complex” one and states that about 58 per cent of type 2 diabetes cases can be attributed to excess body fat.