The Adventures of Lexi and Luca
A high rate of childhood obesity has been identified in the northwest region of Georgia. In an effort to help address this growing problem, the Northwest Georgia Healthcare Partnership set a specific goal to develop a sustainable program to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages among the elementary-aged students in their area.
The challenge was to create messaging that would encourage children's consumption of water rather than sugar-laden beverages while appealing to first through fifth graders – no lectures, no boring educational materials and not just another hallway poster.
A high rate of childhood obesity has been identified in the northwest region of Georgia. In an effort to help address this growing problem, the Northwest Georgia Healthcare Partnership set a specific goal to develop a sustainable program to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages among the elementary-aged students in their area.
The challenge was to create messaging that would encourage children's consumption of water rather than sugar-laden beverages while appealing to first through fifth graders – no lectures, no boring educational materials and not just another hallway poster.
During the early stages of concepting for this project, my 1st grader Emma came home from school really excited to tell me that she said the "Pledge of Allegiance" during the morning announcements. Emma then went on to tell me how she was "seen" in every classroom in the school via the school's broadcast system, standard in most GA public schools. From here the idea was born to create a quick "Peanuts"- like cartoon strip. With a tiny budget, I used a variety of tactics including morning video broadcast announcements in classrooms, life-size characters in school cafeterias and take-home water bottle giveaways to teach students (and remind parents) to "think about what you drink."
Cartoon characters Lexi and Luca became the voices of the campaign, and "The Adventures of Lexi and Luca" cartoon strip provided a fun and humorous way to get kids thinking about healthy lifestyle choices.
Cartoon characters Lexi and Luca became the voices of the campaign, and "The Adventures of Lexi and Luca" cartoon strip provided a fun and humorous way to get kids thinking about healthy lifestyle choices.
What started in one Northwest Georgia public school is now in three, and the expansion chatter has included the Lt. Governor of GA picking up the campaign to run across the state as part of "Healthy Kids Georgia".
