Change4Life and Disney announce partnership to boost kids' activity levels

Change4Life and Disney have partnered up to launch a new campaign to encourage children to meet the minimum recommendations of taking 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise every day.

The ‘10 Minute Shake Up’ scheme will look to get children to do a few extra 10-minute bursts of exercise each day, to help get the country moving for an additional 100 million minutes this summer.

Disney is to use its characters, which will feature alongside recognisable Change4Life animations, to create content for schools across TV, print and online media.

There will also be a focus on face-to-face events with the aim of inspiring children to do a number of extra 10 minute activities each day.

Disney has conducted research finding that over three quarters of mums claimed being active and physically fit should be fun, while over half said they wanted access to more resources to make healthy living easier.

“Change4Life has worked successfully with a number of partners over the past five years and we are particularly delighted to be working alongside Disney on this campaign,” said Dr Ann Hoskins, director for children, young people and families at Public Health England.

“We hope this alliance will be a long-term strategic collaboration, with the aim of getting families eating better and moving more. We at PHE understand that it can be hard for parents to find things to keep the family busy and entertained during the school holidays.

“This campaign will, with help from Disney, provide children and families with everything they need to have an active and fun summer.”

The campaign is to run for six weeks from 15 July, with schools encouraged to apply for activity packs now.

Health collaborations with brands culturally embedded in the public mindset have grown in prominence in recent times, with Coca Cola recently announcing a collaboration with ukactive to launch the Coca Cola Zero ParkLives initiative, which has been designed to offer free activities that promote physical activity in parks across the country.