“Getting teenagers moving is not easy, but encouraging them is important”. Here is the slogan of the campaign launched on August 31 by Public Health France, to encourage parents to physically stretch their teenager(s). It’s that between screen time and junk food, teenagers are less and less attracted to sports activities…
This Wednesday, August 31, Santé Publique France launches a campaign to encourage adolescents to practice sports. Initially, it is aimed at parents to make them aware of the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle among teenagers, to motivate them to get their child(ren) moving, and to suggest tools or means to achieve this.
French teenagers not dynamic enough
Based on the observation that French adolescents do not move enough, Public Health France is setting up this incentive campaign, but also for prevention. Because the lack of activities among young people can also have consequences on their health, in the more or less long term. Cardiovascular illnessesobesity and even cancers can be favored by the absence of sports practice, while a regular session would significantly improve “their respiratory capacity, muscular, metabolic health, bone health” while helping them maintain a healthy weight, the health agency statement said.
In figures, this translates as follows: among young people aged between 11 and 14, only 34% of boys and 20% of girls practice 60 minutes of physical activity per day. A time that is now mainly devoted to screens, in front of which 70% of young people in this age group spend even 3 hours a day. And among 15-17 year olds, 71% of girls and 87% of boys spend the same amount of time daily in front of their phones, tablets and other consoles.
The role of parents
Still decision-makers at many levels in the lives of their teenagers, parents are the first to be able to make things happen. Santé Publique France indeed considers that it is part of their function to encourage their young person(s) to play sports, and it is in this sense that the campaign is aimed at them in the first place. “The parents are first of all a model for the child who will be able to reproduce their behavior in a form of mimicry. Beyond this role model, parents can provide different types of support whether it is logistical support (e.g. registration for physical activities, transport to the place of practice) or persuasive support (e.g. encouragement)” can we read in the press release, which lists all the tools, “digital, informative and incentive” which will be set up throughout the month of September to help them encourage their teenager(s). We thus find in the audiovisual campaign three radio spots, as well as this campaign film.
In addition, Santé Publique France provides parents, on the website mangerbouger.fr a test to be able to assess the level of physical activity of their child as well as a page full of advice to help them find the right arguments likely to have a favorable echo, allowing them to get up a little… failing to follow the WHO recommendation of one hour of moderate or vigorous activity per day.
A second phase, addressed to the teenagers themselves
The second part of the campaign, from October and throughout November, will be aimed directly at teenagers, in challenge mode: every day, it “invite them to complete one daily physical activity challenge“. To this end, the creation of the dedicated Snapchat account, @EnModeDeter, which will give them, in the form of humorous pellets, the challenge of the day to be carried out alone or with others. Personalities popular with teenagers will take part in the communication of these challenges , which they will launch “the challenge of the week” on Snapchat and TikTok, and rewarded with a physical or cultural activity.