GE Healthcare launched a global competition on Twitter to raise public awareness about cancer prevention and healthy living. For the next two months, the “Get Fit” campaign will encourage people from all over the world to tweet about their own health and fitness activities that have been shown to reduce the likelihood of developing cancer.
Continents will compete against one another to race towards fitness. At the end of the competition, one country’s Red Cross or Red Crescent Society, on the winning continent, will receive a donation of US$20,000 based on an open vote.
“GE Healthcare has a long history of creating medical solutions that enable physicians to discover, diagnose and treat cancer,” said John Dineen, CEO of GE Healthcare. “And while ‘Get Fit’ is a friendly competition, there is a serious message behind it — in addition to all the initiatives launched by the company such as healthymagination and Health Ahead, GE Healthcare is committed to making a significant change in the fight against cancer. We believe that combining a healthy lifestyle with earlier detection of cancer through the development of technology breakthroughs will make a real impact on a person’s likelihood of developing cancer.”
The World Health Organization reports that nearly 30% of all cancer deaths can be prevented, and research confirms that a healthy diet and regular exercise can help reduce the risk of cancer.
The Rules of the Game
Participants in the competition need only to have access to the internet and a Twitter account. They simply ‘tweet’ a comment about what they are doing to strive for a healthier lifestyle — e.g., cycling to work, cutting out smoking or eating a healthy meal. To be recognized as part of the “GEt fit” competition, each tweet must include the specific “Get Fit” hash tag for the participant’s country, which can be found on the “Get Fit” web page at http://www.ge.com/getfit. As long as the hash tag is included in the tweet, then it doesn’t matter which language is used for the tweet.
Country hashtags for the Middle East are as follows: United Arab Emirates #GEtfit_UAE, Kuwait #GEtfit_KUW, Lebanon #GEtfit_LIB; Jordan #GEtfit_JOR, Saudi Arabia #GEtfit_KSA, Yemen #GEtfit_YEM, Oman #GEtfit, Qatar #GEtfit_QAT, Bahrain #GEtfit_BRN
The Get Fit web page will show the progression of the competition on a world map showing which continents are generating the most ‘healthy tweets.’ As participants tweet about their healthy activities, the cells hovering over each continent will gradually change from a ‘risky red’ to a ‘healthier green’ colour. The map also shows how many tweets have been generated by each country, and the country’s ranking among its continental neighbours.
The winning continent will be the first to turn its cells green, or the continent that has progressed furthest down the colour spectrum outlined on the map. At the end of the competition, an open vote will be held to determine which country on the winning continent will receive a US$20,000 donation to the Red Cross or Red Crescent Society operating in that country.