''Health Yourself'' aims to promote healthy lifestyles and stop the ''over pathologising'' of stress and anxiety.
The campaign features a number of messages including: ''You are what you eat, so don't be an instant noodle'', and ''Is your body feeling like a temple ... or a messy student flat?''
A statement from the university said the basic principles of the campaign were developed in collaboration with the Otago University Students' Association (OUSA) and Student Health.
Student Health acting director Margaret Perley said the messages were essentially common sense.
However, recently Student Health had noticed an increasing number of people presenting with physical and mental health problems due to a lack of ''basic healthy-lifestyle practices''.
''Many students we see struggle to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and don't have strategies or experience to cope with normal levels of stress and anxiety,'' she said.
''We often hear people linking those feelings of stress and anxiety to concerns they're developing a mental illness; over-pathologising is unhelpful in developing strategies to manage wellbeing.''
The campaign, launched today, will utilise visual messaging in the form of posters around the University campus, and similar electronic versions will be noticeable online and in some lecture theatres.
First-semester exams are fast approaching for most students. The first ones will be held on June 5 and they will run for a fortnight.
The university link building was filled on Monday with students studying for exams, including second-year classics and history student Jenna McNaughton.
She said one of her tips for looking after herself was to ensure she got enough sleep, and to stop studying about 10pm.
She also took regular study breaks and cooked shared meals with her flatmates.
In April this year, medical, nursing, mental health and wellbeing and psychiatry appointments at the service had all increased from the preceding year.
The number of medical appointments had climbed by more than 800, to 8585, while mental health and wellbeing appointments had climbed by more than 150.
