Campaign: UNICEF Kid Power
Company: Boston Celtics, Boston Bruins, Brooklyn Nets and Dallas Mavericks and city Mayors
Nonprofit Partner: U.S. Fund for UNICEF
Launch Date: March 4, 2015
Campaign:
The U.S. Fund for UNICEF has announced the launch of Kid Power, a partnership with three city mayors and local sports teams to encourage elementary school-age kids to get physically active while helping save the lives of their peers in developing countries. Kicking off in New York, Boston and Dallas this month, 10,000 participating elementary school students will monitor their physical activity with fitness bands that display the number of steps taken and number of points earned. Program supporters will convert students’ points into monetary donations toward the purchase of therapeutic food. A full day of physical activity translates into five Kid Power Points, which will ultimately convert to one packet of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food, a peanut paste that is used to save the lives of children with severe acute malnutrition. The UNICEF Kid Power program also includes in-classroom curriculum and educational activities focused on childhood malnutrition.
Our Take:
The concept of kids-helping-kids is an extremely powerful one, well executed in this campaign from the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Empowering children to take control of their daily activity starts to change the tone of the obesity conversation from top-down to bottom-up. Incentivizing kids to participate by equipping them with the knowledge that their small steps can translate into meaningful change for children across the world is a tangible and, seemingly effective motivator. In a pilot study last year, school kids engaged in the program were 55 percent more active than those not participating.
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