Wednesday, January 23rd will be an important day for the health of Michigan residents.  As you may know, some 800,000 children and  5 million adults in Michigan have a weight problem. To help fight the rising obesity epidemic in our state, the Michigan Department of Community Health is launching a new initiative and ad campaign called MI Healthier Tomorrow aimed at encouraging people to make the changes to impact their future today by asking Michigan residents to pledge to lose 10 percent of their body weight.

In 2011, MDCH held an obesity summit attended by nearly 500 participants from around the state to identify key priority strategies. One of the recommendations from the summit, which then became a strategy in the Michigan Health and Wellness 4 x 4 Plan, was the development of one consistent statewide public awareness campaign to promote a social movement to reduce obesity and encourage every Michigander to adopt health as a personal core value. 

MI Healthier Tomorrow is that statewide message and initiative. Out of all of the messages we explored, the hard-hitting theme that focused on the very serious, very real consequences of obesity was the message that consistently produced a reaction.  

MI Healthier Tomorrow encourages Michiganders to pledge to...