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Thin city
Brian Brus, Oklahoma Journal Record
After Oklahoma City had been hit with several unflattering reports of obesity and health problems, Larry McAlister knew a citywide weight-loss campaign had the potential to attract media attention. But he was still pleasantly surprised when it took on elephantine proportions.
"We figured that if we were getting negative publicity at a national level, we should try to turn the negative into a positive," said McAlister, senior vice president for Crosby-Volmer International Communications in Oklahoma City. "It's been wildly successful.
"If we can get on national TV in any forum, it's a big deal," he said.
A sampling of some of the coverage Crosby-Volmer has helped secure should give an idea of how happy McAlister is with the campaign: The Biggest Loser television series, Fox and Friends, MSNBC, NPR radio, USA Today and dozens of magazines.
Mayor Mick Cornett's appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres talk show was a high point for McAlister. Now he's looking forward to a series of appearances planned for the ABC News show Nightline.
At the beginning of the year, Cornett put Oklahoma City on a diet by challenging residents to lose a million pounds collectively.
He was prompted by magazine reports that ranked Oklahoma City as one of the fattest cities in the nation. That didn't jive with efforts to cast the metro area as a "big league city" worthy of a professional NBA basketball team or a vital incubator of big businesses in the same year the Oklahoma Creativity Project kicked off.
McAlister said it wasn't his firm's idea to pose Cornett next to an elephant at the Oklahoma City Zoo for his first address; that came from the Foundation Healthcare Network. But Crosby-Volmer ran with it.
"We'll make calls and pitch ideas to try to get him in front of the national media," McAlister said.
"We put together a list of national magazines and TV shows that we thought would have interest and sent it to everyone from NBC Nightly News to Howard Stern.
"Then we sent an e-mail blast out to people, and then we just worked the phones," McAlister said.
It didn't hurt that the first wave of press releases came during the television writers' strike when producers were looking for almost anything to air, he said. Crosby-Vomer even talked with representatives from David Letterman's and Jay Leno's shows.
"We got into the situation where some people wanted exclusivity," McAlister said. "Some talk shows wanted to be first or not at all."
Ultimately it didn't matter much. Oklahoma City and Cornett got enough media attention to prove Crosby-Volmer's efforts successful.
And as for the diet itself? Cornett has lost 40 pounds to reach his target of 175, while residents reporting their efforts online at www.thiscityisgoingonadiet.com have lost a total of 25 tons.
The Web site allows participants to track their individual weight loss and calculate their body mass index, or BMI.
"We're going to talk it over in the next few weeks to determine stage-two," Cornett said. "The opportunities are many and what we choose to do with it is up to us."
It's been a big challenge, especially when the local baseball stadium offers "all you can eat" seats on game day and Cornett made his first official pitch for an arena-remodeling tax at a sports restaurant where calorie-laden beer and appetizers are served.
Oklahoma's weighty problem is due to overall poor eating habits and lack of exercise. A few attention-grabbing TV broadcasts or newspaper articles – like this one – aren't going to solve the problem overnight, Cornett said.
"The cultural change that I've noticed in the community is positive and seems to be working," he said. "To the personal responsibility aspect of it, there has been a change. I think people are more cognizant of it and I'd like to think that because of this program people are more likely to talk about obesity than they're used to."
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2008-05-17 21:16:46