Choose Health, Choose You

Over the last two decades, there has been a surge in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Sub-Saharan Africa, driven by increasing cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer, which have accounted for over 37% of deaths in Africa. WHO Africa, one of the World Health Organization’s six regional offices, launched an NCD campaign to promote healthier behaviours and reduce major risk factors in the region with a focus on Alcohol consumption, Unhealthy Food choices and Sedentary living. The campaign direction was to educate and encourage the general public to review their daily habits as they pertain to physical activity, diet, and alcohol intake, and encourage them to adopt healthy habits. Our NCD Campaign was framed to inspire individuals to act not out of fear, but for the love of themselves, their families and communities by doing what was right for their health. This thinking resulted in our campaign theme of “Choose Health, Choose You”. As these issues tend to be communicated with hard sell, we decided on an entertaining and informative approach to the execution of this campaign. We created motion graphics and animations videos that spoke to each of these focus areas, educating Africans on the consequences of unhealthy choices. These videos were 60-second videos that conveyed our message in very simple words and using exciting elements, such that it was easy to follow, delivering simple and clear guidelines on how to reduce the risk of NCDs. These videos were adapted across the African region from the English-speaking countries to French and Portuguese.