Alaskans Drink This—Not That!

Alaska’s Play Every Day campaign shares new public education materials that feature local families and Alaska sports champions choosing to drink water or low-fat milk instead of sugary drinks. The nationally recognized campaign distributes free materials to motivate Alaskans to “Drink This” — water and low-fat milk — and “Not That” — sugary drinks. Sugary drinks are beverages that contain added sugar, which include sports and energy drinks, vitamin drinks, sweetened fruit drinks, powdered mixes, flavored teas and soda.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services launched Play Every Day in 2012 as a social marketing campaign that promotes positive health behaviors to help prevent and reduce childhood obesity and related health problems, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The campaign focuses on motivating Alaska families to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day and to reduce the number of sugary beverages they drink.

As a social marketing campaign, Play Every Day uses marketing research to inform the education materials and evaluate them. Campaign staff conduct focus groups of Alaska parents to understand barriers and benefits linked to healthy behaviors and test message concepts.

Surveys in 2014 and 2015 allowed Play Every Day staff to compare knowledge and behaviors before and after the launch of the sugary drinks prevention campaign, which included TV public service announcements and print materials. The survey evaluation showed a statistically significant increase in the percentage of urban Alaska parents who reported serving their children no sugary drinks during the past week, as well as a statistically significant increase in the percentage of urban Alaska parents who reported serving their children at least two servings of water each day.

For more information about Play Every Day, please contact Ann Potempa at ann.potempa@alaska.gov or (907) 269-3433.