There have been few advertising campaigns that have had the impact the Life Be In It juggernaut did.
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Started by the Victorian government in 1975, Life Be In It, and its iconic star Norm, was designed to get Victorians off their couches and active.
It proved so effective that two years later it was rolled out to a national audience.
Norm was the perfect star for the campaign: overweight with a "tinnie" resting on his belly and a remote control directing him to the sport on television declaring, "I've got nothing against physical fitness, I could watch all those fit blokes forever".
Another classic line from Norm was "so what if I can't see me toes, I remember what most of them look like so there's really no need to see those". Note the very clever rhyming prose.
Norm was the Aussie knock-around bloke, talking about having a "flat on the FJ" and getting to "the TAB".
There was a 25th anniversary return of the advertisement in 2000, reminding people of the health message.
The brilliance of the campaign meant it was still used as an effective tool to promote health living in modern advertising
In 2023 the original again hit our screens to get a simple but profound message through to take care of your health.
But returning to winding back the clock, and the original campaign was brilliant at leveraging all the influence it could.
One fun and effective Life Be In It tool that proved a hit with the youth audience was the giant earth ball.
Decorated with a map of the world, these huge rubber balls would provide countless hours of entertainment for children, either rolling it along or hoisting up above their heads like a beach ball.
The earth balls were often used by schools, a smart move by teachers to zap some energy out of their students when they were a bit too restless.
The Earth Balls were also used in general community spaces.
The above photo shows an Earth Ball mid-air during a "New Games" day put on by the department of youth, sport and recreation.
The day was held in late January 1976 at Lake Pertobe.
It was a huge success with an estimated 750 children turning up to have a crack at the earth ball.
The children didn't go hungry, with catering provided by the Robins Youth Group and the Kiwani club.
While the day was all about getting children active, the food was maybe not on the same page.
Ho tdogs were for lunch, with pancakes for dessert.
There was one person who came out of the day worse than they came in.
One of the game's referees, who had travelled from Melbourne, fell on a block of cement and badly hurt his ankle. He was taken to hospital by St John's Ambulance.
While it was not officially part of the Life Be In It campaign, one of the other tools used to promote good health during this time was the Jump Rope For Heart.
This program was especially popular in local schools with children burning off energy and being sponsored at the same time for each time they jumped the skipping rope.
This was back in the days when skipping ropes were commonplace in school yards and kids jumping for hours on end was a labour of love.
