Billboard ads targeting childhood obesity this week attracted the ire of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, a group that works for social acceptance of overweight people.
"The beef here is they used gigantic billboards that traumatize the very children they're trying to help," said Peggy Howell, a spokeswoman for the California-based group.
Sometimes it takes shock to draw attention to a dire cause- and the fat that kills children is a dire cause. If I was a fat child, and I was, I would be upset about the attention I would feel that was on me- especially over something embarrassing like weighing more than my mother at 12. However, I think the NAAFA is missing the point- attention is necessary. No one should be ridicules, but their unhealthiness shouldn't be ignored either. I think this billboard is brilliant in the sense that rather than showing a fat miserable child, you see a child's legs and a scale... and the words the build into reality for them with each pound they gain- diseases.
The billboard doesn't focus on a child, you don't see the child! You see the problem, and how anonymous it is; it affects so many! This in your face approach should also be accompanied by local programs to help get kids active and teach them the tools they need to be healthy that they are obviously not learning at home.
I don't think the billboards are going to change childhood obesity.
I think we are getting too politically correct as a nation.
I have been an obese adult for over 20 years. If I saw a billboard 20 years ago about obesity, it wouldn't of changed that fact.
Parents need to be educated.
A fat baby isn't cute.
That is a fat baby, that may grow into a fat child, then a fat adult with many health issues.
Having organizations telling you not to say something is not going to change that fact.
Health professional should start telling their patients at a young age we need to get you healthy.
I have never been told by a doctor to lose weight.
I do not know why not.
I once weighed 255 lbs.
I agree with RedAlice.........it's not targeting a child in the whole.
New American Cander Society ads are extremely graphic in nature. They are targeted to draw attention to the dangers of smoking.....if only my daughter would watch them and QUIT.
The problem is that we're not talking about something like smoking - where the obvious answer is do not put the cigarette in your mouth. "Stop being fat," isn't going to help anyone, especially if it makes parents put their overweight children on restrictive, unbalanced diets or WORSE put their non-overweight children on a such a diet because they're afraid of the kids becoming fat.
The article had some great points, that there are much better ways to address the problem than a billboard that seems to say "bad kid," or "bad parent" without giving any guidance or help in providing a healthy solution, such as the article pointed out in making healthy food more available to the poor and improving nutrition in schools.
When I worked in social service, I saw countless people feeding themselves and their family from the convenience store and/or fast food or even taverns because they were the only food available within walking distance of their home, and they had no car or access to transportation.
My mother babysat for a well-educated, mid-income woman, who sent her underweight son to kindergarten with a carton of low-fat yogurt OR a lettuce salad with fat-free dressing as his lunch. Breakfast had been one piece of fruit or a yogurt. By 3 pm when he got to our house, he had had less than 200 calories for the day. This was her idea of good nutrition - she was afraid that her son would be fat.
When bad information is common place among all levels of society, a billboard that instills fear without information, is worse than useless.
The problem is that we're not talking about something like smoking - where the obvious answer is do not put the cigarette in your mouth. "Stop being fat," isn't going to help anyone, especially if it makes parents put their overweight children on restrictive, unbalanced diets or WORSE put their non-overweight children on a such a diet because they're afraid of the kids becoming fat.
The article had some great points, that there are much better ways to address the problem than a billboard that seems to say "bad kid," or "bad parent" without giving any guidance or help in providing a healthy solution, such as the article pointed out in making healthy food more available to the poor and improving nutrition in schools.
When I worked in social service, I saw countless people feeding themselves and their family from the convenience store and/or fast food or even taverns because they were the only food available within walking distance of their home, and they had no car or access to transportation.
My mother babysat for a well-educated, mid-income woman, who sent her underweight son to kindergarten with a carton of low-fat yogurt OR a lettuce salad with fat-free dressing as his lunch. Breakfast had been one piece of fruit or a yogurt. By 3 pm when he got to our house, he had had less than 200 calories for the day. This was her idea of good nutrition - she was afraid that her son would be fat.
When bad information is common place among all levels of society, a billboard that instills fear without information, is worse than useless.
I mentioned this in another post about this ad... I personally think that all this will do is give bullies another reason to pick on fat kids, end of story.
There is a lot of corporate influence on people's weights...Here we go again with personal responsiblity vs. corporations trying to make a buck. It starts in the hospital with formula companies giving women samples that have been shown to decrease the amount and length of breastfeeding. It continues with WIC, who on the one hand try to provide nutrition info but on the other hand is in the pocket of the dairy industry. It continues in the schools where kids are advertised to. In the school cafeteria where my daughter takes cheerleading there is a poster of the food pyramid, sponsored with pix of Tony the Tiger and that frog guy...high sugar cereal. I think a lot of school food programs are improving, but many rely on high fat, low nutrition foods as standard. Budget cuts for PE programs and dangerous neighborhoods that preclude children being able to play outside. This problem is multifactorial, but I see it start during pregnancy. It is based on ignorance, economics, and corporate interests.
MetroWest 'fat' ads attract the ire of national obesity tolerance outfit
