We've all seen the billboards—"Don't get slapped by fat" or "Are you pouring on the pounds?". Our reactions range from a sickly feeling in the gut to the need to avert our eyes.
No public service initiative would be complete without an awareness campaign spanning billboards, television and the Internet. The nationwide anti-obesity push is no different. Boston’s own Mayor Menino has hopped on the wagon, plastering everything from subway stations to city buildings with his soda sucks campaign.
But who are the targets of these campaigns? The obese, their condition, or the conglomerates like Kraft who profit from both?
The message of eating healthier and doing more exercise was lost in the imagery that stigmatized overweight Americans, according to Kelly Brownell, the Director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders. Images of bulging thighs and stomach close ups, supposedly meant to appeal to the viewer's vanity, tended to come across as just insulting. If someone comes up to you and calls you fat and ugly, then saying how you could lose weight in the same breath, most of us would brush them off, even if there was some good advice there. The first part of their pitch would have ticked us off too much to hear out the second.
The campaign backfires differently for kids than adults. Elementary school children are sensitive and may misunderstand a message that says childhood obesity is going to be wiped out. Combative ads such as these may fuel weight discrimination and allow them to feel personally targeted. Hurt feelings may lead to further self destructive behavior, the least of which may be comfort eating.
On the other hand, another batch of public health announcements are criticized for not being hard-hitting enough. High calorie fast foods and sugar drinks, a large part of the American diet, should be the target of these ads not overweight kids and adults. A good place to start would be highlighting the cause of obesity not the effect.
So the question is - encouraging the consumers to change their lifestyles enough to make a difference, yet protecting their fragile feelings?
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