Shrek says your kid is fat

On my way to work the other morning I drove by a large billboard with the Shrek and Donkey characters riding skateboards. I had to do a double-take. While I do like Shrek, that’s not the reason I looked back. My surprise over the advertisement’s slogan was what warranted a second glance:

Be a player. Get up and play an hour a day.

It was a billboard targeting kids and advertising playing. That’s right, an advertisement for playing, a sad and somewhat surreal sight. Equally strange was how low the goal of the advert is; the board doesn’t even advocating exercise, simply playing.

Have kids gotten so lazy they need to be coaxed into playing? Have kids gotten lazy to the point of government sponsored intervention? My parents, aunts and uncles had a hard time getting me, my brother and cousins all to come in-doors, forget trying to force an hour a day. It struck me as a very foreign concept, but it’s a sad reality these days.

I looked up the slogan and it’s part of a campaign from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Their site has some startling statistics:

Obesity is epidemic in the United States. In recent years, diabetes rates among people ages 30 to 39 rose by 70%. About 46.5 million adults in the United States smoke cigarettes, even though this single behavior will result in disability and premature death for half of them. More than 60% of American adults do not get enough physical activity, and more than 25% are not active at all.

After I passed the sign it further occurred to me that the icon chosen to stimulate activity in American youth is a fat, overweight ogre… and even he thinks kids are fat and lazy.

I know that there are many factors in keeping kids active, but if any of you have tips for keeping kids active, I’d love to hear them.