It’s Bigger than Me was introduced to the world in 2021 to educate the public that obesity is a disease, not just a character flaw or lack of willpower. As we worked to shift society’s mindset, we also discovered that people living with obesity weren’t just experiencing bias and stigma from strangers but from health care professionals. So, we decided to understand what was happening to not only fight the stigma and bias surrounding obesity itself but also raise awareness about the type of treatment people living with obesity were experiencing and looking for.
Our initial research taught us that preconceived notions that often lead to bias, mistreatment, and lesser care could alienate patients from pursuing their health and weight journey.
In fact, 66% of participants who reported a history of weight stigma experienced it from their doctors.
Through conversations, we also uncovered some of the values they look for when seeking help – compassion, attentiveness, respect, and personalized care – and how these values can help improve their experience with their doctors.
With this in mind, we knew that to help, we needed to correct misconceptions about obesity and reinforce that it’s a disease, how to manage it, its health implications and explain how finding help from an inclusive health care professional is a good first step. This led our team to ask:
“What if we could facilitate a way for these patients to identify doctors who are allies, recognize bias, and are dedicated to changing the patterns of the past?”
We set out to show patients that not only are they not alone, but that there are health care professionals who want to help them navigate their weight management journey and give them the care they were looking for.
Our goal was simple: to continue to educate both the public and HCPs that obesity is a disease, we needed to raise awareness about the type of treatment people living with obesity were yearning for and establish a way to connect people living with obesity with spaces free from weight bias and stigma.
On August 30th, 2023, we launched the Inclusive Obesity Care Initiative to reinforce that obesity is a disease and raise awareness about the type of care patients living with obesity were looking for by introducing the world's first ally marker, the “Inclusive Obesity Care” symbol, that would signal spaces of compassion, respect and support for people living with obesity.
We created the symbol through a compelling video featuring people living with obesity and health care professionals as they discussed and reflected on the real struggles members of the obesity community regularly face. Then, with help from cultural icon and brand ambassador Queen Latifah, the group worked together to create a symbol that visually represents and raises awareness for the need for unbiased care and eventually where to find spaces free from weight bias and stigma.
To amplify the launch of this initiative, we secured a strong wave of earned top-tier consumer and news coverage, including People, Extra TV, Insider, BET, The List, Parade, Morning Honey and more. We also amplified our messaging through a fully integrated campaign experience featuring content on our website and owned IBTM digital social channels, influencer and celebrity social channels, earned media relations, print media, paid amplification, and more.
We seized opportunities to get health care professionals involved with the initiative with engagement tactics that helped raise awareness and educate professionals about the need for inclusive care and communicate how they can show their support. We also worked closely with Novo Nordisk Inc. field teams to help raise awareness of the Inclusive Obesity Care Initiative and engage health care professionals to adopt and use the “Inclusive Obesity Care” symbol by providing them with field flyers that include the symbol to display, whether physically in their home or work office, digitally on their social media pages, or both.
Since its launch, the Inclusive Obesity Care Initiative has catapulted the fact that obesity is a disease and that everyone deserves to manage their weight and health confidently with support from the right care team, sparking conversations in media, on social, and in person.
In total, from August 31, 2023, to December 30, 2023, the Inclusive Obesity Care Initiative has achieved incredible results when it comes to raising awareness of obesity being a disease and the type of unbiased care people with obesity were yearning for. The campaign generated 6.6 billion earned impressions, with in-depth messaging about the initiative, 506K IOC website views to learn more, 8.2 million engagements and discussions on influencer posts, 5.5K social conversations on owned social channels, 93 million paid social reach, 301,702 total paid social engagements, 273 IOC poster downloads, 150K field flyers with distributed to field teams to date – and a whopping 41%YOY increase in mentions “obesity as a disease” in media coverage and social conversation.
