The blistering anger that erupted from the games industry after last month's Department of Health Change 4 Life print advertisement campaign, featuring a prone kid with a PlayStation-like controller and the word "Death" in all-caps, has cooled since the television campaign launched this weekend. Covered by Mark Sweeny in the Media section of The Guardian, the ad promotes active videogames, like dance mat games, as part of a healthy lifestyle.
From the article:
"Active videogames, where kids need to jump up and down or dance about as part of the game, are a great way to get kids moving more," said Dawn Primarolo, the minister for public health.
"Little bits of activity like this, throughout the day can easily add up to the 60 active minutes kids need. But our survey shows that at the moment our kids just aren't getting up and about enough."
The ad also features another prone kid playing a console game, which may anger some games supporters. But you know what? Too much static activity of any sort is bad for you. Games aren't the exception, they're just an example. So chill out.
The Department of Health spearheaded the campaign as a result of disturbing new statistics uncovered by the "How Are The Kids" survey, released in January and contributed to by over 260,000 individuals. According to their press release, "the survey ... found that 45 per cent of their kids watched TV or played non-active video games before school, and only 22 per cent did something active after their evening meal."
