Foreword

The VERB

Campaign
Janet L. Collins, PhD, Howell Wechsler, EdD
W
hen Congress in 2001 gave $125 million to
CDC to launch a campaign that would help
children develop habits to foster good health over a
lifetime and to use methods that are employed by the best
kids marketers, the directive was historic for many rea-
sons. The funding was the largest ever given to CDC for
a single initiative, and the language specied the promo-
tion of child health in a way new to government, but not
new to childrenmarketing directly to them. For 4 plus
years, we surrounded children with engaging messages
about the benets of physical activity. Implementing
VERB

was a thrilling and energizing experience for

CDC. That kids loved the campaign and got moving
because of it makes VERB a landmark achievement.
With the publication of this supplement to the
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, another mile-
stone of the VERB story is achieved. The papers that
compose this supplement
111
assemble in one place
extensive details about the planning and implementa-
tion of this historic public health intervention. Readers
will discover important lessons from the VERB experi-
ence that can be used to guide our efforts to address
many of the critical and complex public health prob-
lems we will face in the 21st century.
The VERB campaign illustrates the power of partner-
ships between public health agencies and the private
sector groups that know how to compellingly engage
our shared target audiences. The depth and range of
VERBs activities provide evidence that we can reach, even
surround, young people with public health messagesin
mass-media outlets, on the Internet sites they visit, in
schools, and in the youth-serving agencies and organiza-
tions they frequent. VERB demonstrates that public
health campaigns promoting abstract concepts, such as
health promotion behaviors, can benet from the use of
branding, just as commercial marketing campaigns use
branding to promote consumer products. Plus, the fact
that the communities that leveraged VERBs national
advertising could build support for their programs hints
at what could be possible with sustained funding and even
greater attention paid to stimulate local efforts.
A number of key individuals and groups made VERB
possible and made it such a success. The Honorable
John Porter, former Chairman of the House Appropri-
ations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human
Services and Education, and former Congressman from
Illinois, sponsored the appropriation to fund the cam-
paign. The Department of Health and Human Services
facilitated our work in numerous ways, including rapid
review and approval of the hundreds of advertising and
promotional items. VERB beneted greatly from the
expert guidance we received from many of our public
health colleagues who are experts in physical activity
and marketing. We are thankful for the national and
community partners who responded to the need to
provide opportunities for children to be active. We
salute the remarkably talented staffs at the advertising
agencies that turned the abstract concept of more
physical activity into a compelling brand for tweens.
And we are especially proud of the CDC staff who came
together to form the VERB team. They demonstrated
exceptional dedication and commitment to improving
childrens health, all the while serving as wise stewards
of public resources.
The VERB campaign broke new ground for public
health in many ways. Reaching our tween customers
directly through sophisticated methods of commercial
marketing, branding a behavior (instead of a product)
around which messages would be delivered through
substantial paid media, building partnerships with me-
dia giants, establishing governmental channels to re-
view advertisements and promotions within a short
timeframe to meet production deadlinesthese are
just a few examples. VERB challenged our traditional
models of public health while persuading us to trust the
marketing process and to be bold and nimble. This
supplement will shed light on how VERB did what it did
so well and will provide insights and inspiration to those
who will design and implement innovative public
health campaigns in the future.
The ndings and conclusions in this paper are those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the CDC.
No nancial disclosures were reported by the authors of
this paper.
Appendix
Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found,
in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2008.03.014.
From the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion, CDC, Atlanta, Georgia
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Janet L. Collins,
PhD, CDC National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion, 4770 Buford Highway NE, MS K-40, Atlanta GA
30341-3717. E-mail: jlc1@cdc.gov.
S171 Am J Prev Med 2008;34(6S) 0749-3797/08/$see front matter
2008 American Journal of Preventive Medicine Published by Elsevier Inc. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2008.03.014
References
1. Wong FL, Greenwell M, Gates S, Berkowitz JM. Its what you do! Reections
on the VERB

campaign. Am J Prev Med 2008;34(6S):S175S182.

2. Asbury LD, Wong FL, Price SM, Nolin MJ. The VERB

campaign: applying
a branding strategy in public health. Am J Prev Med 2008;
34(6S):S183S187.
3. Heitzler CD, Asbury LD, Kusner SL. Bringing play to life: the use of
experiential marketing in the VERB

campaign. Am J Prev Med

2008;34(6S):S188S193.
4. Huhman M, Berkowitz JM, Wong FL, et al. The VERB

campaigns strategy
for reaching African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian
children and parents. Am J Prev Med 2008;34(6S):S194S209.
5. Bretthauer-Mueller R, Berkowitz JM, Thomas M, et al. Catalyzing commu-
nity action within a national campaign: VERB

community and national

partnerships. Am J Prev Med 2008;34(6S):S210S221.
6. Berkowitz JM, Huhman M, Heitzler CD, Potter LD, Nolin MJ, Ban-
spach SW. Overview of formative, process, and outcome evaluation
methods used in the VERB

campaign. Am J Prev Med 2008;34(6S):S222

S229.
7. Potter LD, Judkins DR, Piesse A, Nolin MJ, Huhman M. Methodology of the
outcome evaluation of the VERB

campaign. Am J Prev Med

2008;34(6S):S230S240.
8. Huhman M, Bauman A, Bowles HR. Initial outcomes of the VERB

campaign: tweens awareness and understanding of campaign messages.

Am J Prev Med 2008;34(6S):S241S248.
9. Bauman A, Bowles HR, Huhman M, et al. Testing a hierarchy-of-effects
model: pathways from awareness to outcomes in the VERB

campaign
2002-2003. Am J Prev Med 2008;34(6S):S249S256.
10. Berkowitz JM, Huhman M, Nolin, MJ. Did augmenting the VERB

campaign advertising in select communities have an effect on awareness,

attitudes, and physical activity? Am J Prev Med 2008;34(6S):S257S266.
11. Price SM, Huhman M, Potter LD. Inuencing the parents of children aged
913 years: ndings from the VERB

campaign. Am J Prev Med

2008;34(6S):S267S274.
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