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LiveLighter

Western Australian healthy weight campaign, launched in 2012 and run by Cancer Council WA with WA Health. Its graphic ads showed visceral 'toxic fat' and sugary drinks, urging adults to eat better, drink fewer sugary drinks and move more.

Years
2012–now
Country
Australia
Topic
NutritionPhysical activity
Asks people to
StartStop
Strategy
Fear appealMetaphor
Channel
OutdoorSocial (paid)TVWebsite
Audience
Adults
Adults 25-64 in Western Australia.

Evidence

Quasi-experimentalPositive

2012 launch, WA vs comparison state Victoria, cross-sectional surveys before and after two media waves (Morley 2016, n about 2,000 per wave): 54% awareness after wave one; state-by-time interactions showed population-level increases in thoughts about the health harms of overweight and in physical activity intentions (P<0.05), with no rise in weight stigma. Cohort study (Morley 2019): frequent sugary drink consumption fell among frequent consumers (22% to 16%). Serial surveys 2012-2019 (Humphreys 2024): more adults knew excess weight raises cancer and diabetes risk, more met daily vegetable guidelines and reported sugary drink consumption fell. The 2016 Junk Food wave (Morley 2022) raised avoidance of fast-food outlets from 63% to 77%.

Sponsor (who paid)

  • Cancer Council Western Australia NGO, creator
  • Western Australian Department of Health Foreign government, funder

Credits (who made it)

Not recorded yet.

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. Humphreys L et al. Evaluation of the population-level impacts of the LiveLighter® obesity prevention campaign from 2012 to 2019 based on serial cross-sectional surveys. BMC Public Health 2024;24(1):1016 evaluation · 2024 · DOI 10.1186/s12889-024-18462-5 · PMID 38609966
  2. Morley B et al. LiveLighter® 'Junk Food' mass media campaign increases behavioural strategies to reduce consumption. Health Educ Res 2022;37(6):434-451 evaluation · 2022 · DOI 10.1093/her/cyac024 · PMID 36169167
  3. Gascoyne C et al. Potential impact of the adult-targeted LiveLighter "Sugary Drinks" campaign on adolescent consumption: Findings from a national cross-sectional school survey. Health Promot J Austr 2023;34(4):759-764 evaluation · 2023 · DOI 10.1002/hpja.700 · PMID 36727405
  4. Morley B et al. Population-based evaluation of the 'LiveLighter' healthy weight and lifestyle mass media campaign. Health Educ Res 2016 evaluation · 2016 · DOI 10.1093/her/cyw009 · PMID 26956039
  5. Morley B et al. Association of the LiveLighter mass media campaign with consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages: Cohort study. Health Promot J Austr 2019 evaluation · 2019 · DOI 10.1002/hpja.244 · PMID 30903631
  6. Morley BC et al. Controlled cohort evaluation of the LiveLighter mass media campaign's impact on adults' reported consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. BMJ Open 2018 reference · 2018 · DOI 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019574 · PMID 29695387
  7. Miller C et al. Further evidence from the LiveLighter(®) campaign: A controlled cohort study in Victoria and South Australia. Health Promot J Austr 2022 reference · 2022 · DOI 10.1002/hpja.453 · PMID 33369816
  8. Ananthapavan J et al. Cost-effectiveness of LiveLighter® - a mass media public education campaign for obesity prevention. PLoS One 2022 evaluation · 2022 · DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0274917 · PMID 36129952

Research notes

Created 2026-10-22 by literature mining (PubMed/OpenAlex); evidence level, outcome and findings are paraphrased from the evaluation abstracts, full texts not read. No credits: no page naming an agency was checked. Sponsor roles from secondary memory (originally Heart Foundation WA); confirm on livelighter.com.au. Evidence updated 2026-10-22: level raised from observational to quasi-experimental after adding Morley 2016, which used Victoria as a comparison state; Morley 2016 and 2019 added (openalex-deep queue; DOI checked on Crossref and PMID via NCBI esummary 2026-10-22). Heart Foundation WA co-authorship on Morley 2016 supports the original sponsor role. Evaluation sources added 2026-10-22 (citation snowballing / helpline pass): Morley 2018, Miller 2022, Ananthapavan 2022; evidence level and outcome unchanged. Evaluation links reviewed 2026-10-22: Morley 2018 (BMJ Open controlled cohort) and Miller 2022 (Victoria and South Australia) set to reference; they evaluate the Victorian run of LiveLighter, not the WA sponsors' campaign. Evidence unchanged (level rests on Morley 2016).

Record cases/wa-livelighter.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign