As the world has its eyes on the nomination and election process for the next President of the United States of America, it is timely to analyze the main banner chosen by the First Lady as one of the principal strategies during her tenure alongside the president.
Faced with alarming rates of childhood obesity affecting the United States, in a political strategy that involves her in supporting the administration’s positive vision without committing to thorny issues like healthcare and foreign policy, Michelle Obama put all her eggs in the basket of the “Let’s Move” campaign to fight childhood obesity. This campaign is structured around pillars that include, primarily, the promotion of physical activity, empowering parents through information and guidance, changing school meals, and ensuring access to healthy food for all. From this campaign, we can draw five major lessons:
1. Properly channeled political status and charisma can make a big difference. Some First Ladies choose to remain in a discreet role as companions in their husbands’ private lives, while others, like Betty Ford, select causes such as breast cancer prevention to raise awareness and make a difference. Some First Ladies become infamously famous for conflicts of interest in building White Houses, while others use the power of the White House to draw attention not only to the designer they wear, but also to the importance of creating alliances with representative sectors of society to reach people. Michelle Obama does not mind doing the “mommy dance” with Jimmy Fallon on a late-night TV show if it playfully promotes physical activity, nor does she mind making a bit of a fool of herself singing with a turnip if it draws attention to the importance of eating vegetables. She also uses her star power to call on campaign spokespeople for physical activity, such as LeBron James or Beyoncé, to speak to children about the great benefits of being active.
2. When it’s not your area of expertise, surround yourself with true experts with diverse perspectives. It’s clear that Michelle doesn’t do all the work alone; she has surrounded herself with a group of experts not only in public health, but also in marketing, chefs, and other specialties and professions that are typically not considered for public health campaigns. Understanding that food is an issue that goes beyond calories and anxiety, one of the main executive heads of the campaign was Sam Kaas, the Obamas’ chef since their Chicago days. Kaas’s influence is evident in the way vegetable consumption is promoted among children: eating vegetables is not an obligation to grow healthy and strong; it can be a fun and accessible practice for everyone, involving children in maintaining small gardens, like the famous garden built at the White House, where much of the vegetables and herbs consumed inside are grown.
3. Instead of dividing, create alliances. One of the most innovative and controversial points of the campaign was that, rather than considering the food industry as public enemy number one in the fight against obesity, it was seen as an ally for public policy. Conservative voices were heard but quieted when a macro alliance was achieved with Wal Mart, the largest food supplier in the United States, to reduce product portion sizes, salt, sugar, and trans fat content in industry formulations, as well as alliances with bottled water producers to promote water consumption. It is a bold political strategy, as the president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association notes, Obama is someone the industry can work with, partly because she does not try to be the “food police” and unites people. Some companies that joined the healthier products initiative have even gained political points by reformulating their products.
4. Reinforcing positive messages creates more impact than demonizing and blaming. The playful approach she has given to her physical activity campaign—because that’s what it should naturally be—through dance, as well as involving children in food preparation through various programs, speaks not only to the importance of positive messaging but also to the vision of the process as long-term training to eat well and better. As she said: it’s not that children can’t eat a cupcake, but that parents should know what’s in the cupcake and how much we can eat.
5. Every major action will always have detractors, at all levels. Critics of Obama’s campaign accuse her of taking a paternalistic attitude by telling Americans how they should eat. Others have pointed out a conflict of interest in Beyoncé being a spokesperson for physical activity while also doing commercials for the soda industry. Schoolchildren made the hashtag #thanksMichelleObama popular as a sarcastic accompaniment to photos of unappetizing vegetables served in schools. Clearly, Michelle’s campaign adds political points and has strategies that can be improved. What is undeniable is that the way she has articulated its pillars is innovative in a context where, in other places, the tendency is to blame and demonize not only people’s decisions and lifestyle habits but an entire industry. The impact and legacy of the campaign will be seen in the years to come.
Originally published in El Economista
— This article was originally published in Spanish by Liliana Martínez Lomelí. Translation generated with AI from the original text.