Update:
We reported below on the lengths Georgia has gone to to educate the community about childhood obesity. Now watch this video entitled “Stop the Cycle,” from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the organization behind Strong4Life.
“The stark video opens with an obese young man having a heart attack and then cycles back in time to illustrate how lifestyle choices, made by others for him as a child and by him as an adult, contributed to this end.”
The video aims to continue the conversation about the clinical reality of the long-term consequences of childhood obesity, and its complex causes, both societal and parental.
It’s very powerful. But will it change behaviour?
Georgia has the second highest childhood obesity rate in the United States, with nearly one in three children overweight.
Their solution to the problem? A new “Stop Child Obesity” campaign which doesn’t muck around with its messaging. The ads include tv ads and print ads with slogans such as “Being fat takes the fun out of being a kid” and “Fat prevention begins at home. And the buffet line.”
The ads have won some praise for their attention-grabbing tactics. But they also have outraged parents, activists and academics who feel like the ads will bring on more stigma for an already bullied group of children.
The Georgia Children’s Health Alliance, which created the ads, said they were necessary to jar parents of obese kids out of a state of denial that their children had a problem.
ABC News reported that the ads were produced after the Alliance surveyed parents in two towns in Georgia. From The Huffington Post:
They discovered that 75 percent of parents with obese children were not aware that their children were overweight, while 50 percent of parents didn’t realize that childhood obesity was a problem to begin with. And in a state where nearly 40 percent of children are overweight or obese — Georgia is in 2nd place for childhood obesity rates nationwide, only behind Mississippi — these statistics are problematic.
Here are some of the ads so that you can watch and decide for yourself which side of the fence you sit on:
What do you think of the ads?
Comments
162 Comments so far
I married into an obese family. My husband and his sisters followed the example of their parent’s in the food and eating habits they developed. It is very much the parent’s responsibility to teach and educate their children in what is healthy. But also the genetics of the family affect this too, so i know part of this is not their fault, but it gives me great concern for what my children may inherit from the genes.
Having said that – there comes a point in everyone’s life when the responsibility moves from the parent’s to the individual, and it is the individual that has the control over their habits. I’ve watched my husband over the past 5 years battle with his weight – it’s affected his work, his friendships, his mental health too. He’s made the decision to change his life and his body because one day a TRUE friend took him aside and expressed their concern for him and his habits.
Part of me wishes everyday that his parent’s had raised him better, that they had cared that little bit more so he wouldn’t have had these struggles and battles, that he wouldn’t have copped the bullying and abuse, the medical bills and the rejection.
The other part of me is so proud of what he has accomplished in teaching himself about healthy eating habits, regular exercise etc, and even more proud that he has developed the discipline to use this knowledge.
So yes, I think these ads are a good idea, but I also agree that there is more work that needs to be done. There needs to be more action as the previous comments have said. Healthier options of food need to be more readily available and at a more decent price, packaging needs to be less attractive so not to entice children as quickly, the education system should encourage the practice and learning of healthy diet and cooking in classes, regular exercise by all class members and possibly some alternative options like yoga, Pilates, wider options of dance, gymnastics, etc so physical activity appeals to all students and not just the “jocks”, theory work in PE about how your body works and reacts and why it needs good food balanced with exercise is important too. But also different bodies (short and stocky does not mean your fat, tall and lean does not mean your are healthy either) and get rid of BMI. I found all these things lacking in my education. But also greater support to parents in how they can encourage a healthy lifestyle for themselves and their children too. Maybe if schools offered a support class where parents come a cook with their kids once a term?
Obesity is more than just weight or a number, and it can be controlled if everyone takes action.
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Wow I get tired of reading that healthy food is cheaper than junk food! I am in walking distance of a wide variety of supermarkets, green grocers, cafes and restaurants. I do not want for choice or live in an isolated place where fruit and veg are hard to get. Yet they’re not cheap! Pasta, bread, biscuits, and soft drink are cheap. Fish, vegetables, fruit, meat are not.
This is only addressing a small part of what’s being discussed here, I know, but it drives me crazy.
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I like the new ad. It’s more informative in a way that grabs your attention. It identifies behaviours that attribute to obesity as an adult and also points out learned behaviour that comes from parents.
I disliked the other ads so so much.
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It is not..that..hard to stay slim and fit throughout life if you partake in active pursuits and eat right. That’s what people don’t get. It is actually a really simple concept. If you can’t afford to feed your kids healthy, home cooked food and a ‘box of fish fingers’ is cheaper – then don’t have kids. I would never consider having kids if I couldn’t afford to feed them properly.
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I think these ads are brilliant. I have struggled with my weight all my life. These ads will serve as a wake-up call for many irresponsible or uneducated parents on what to feed their children. The shot in the first add where the mum is feeding the child chips saying ‘This is the only thing that will keep him quiet’ is heartbreaking. It makes me angry too because I know people who feed their kids McDonalds all the time saying ‘That’s all they’ll eat!’ NO IT’S NOT! If they’re hungry, and the only thing in the house is healthy food, guess what…
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http://meganadmire.tumblr.com/post/15496838339/so-i-came-across-this-on-the-mamamia-website
I really just think the advertisement itself is poor
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These ads make me FURIOUS.
Perhaps because I was chubby, from the ages of 9-11. It wasn’t because I was eating too much or exercising to little. It was just puppy fat. (I don’t think the calories in/calories out is that simple for kids, who are experiencing uneven growth patterns and hormones and the like.)
During that time, looking back, I was sad. All the friends I had when I was younger had abandoned me. My teachers didn’t like me. I had always been the teachers pet – I was a diligent, bubbly student – but suddenly, I wasn’t paid any attention at all – in fact, I was picked on. I would take as many days off as I could, pretending to be sick, because school was so awful. I had no self-esteem.
Then when I was 12 I had a growth spurt. And I was skinny again. Tada!
And when that happened, my happiness levels soared. Not because I cared so much about the way I looked (I was always the same person, inside) but because I was treated differently. Suddenly, everyone wanted to be my friend. Boys liked me. I was invited to “cool” parties. And that’s understandable, coming from shallow almost-teenagers.
But adults treated me differently, too. Teachers! My year 4 teacher, who had been nasty to me, actually pulled me aside in the playground and said “oh Olivia, I wouldn’t even have recognised you, you look so pretty now!” Mothers would do the same, constantly.
I am not trying to provide a “woe is me” story – I am just trying to demonstrate that these ads are superfluous. IT IS SHAMEFUL ENOUGH TO BE FAT AS A KID, without these humiliations on top of it. Society already tell us that fat is unattractive, undesirable, that we shouldn’t reward fat people with our friendship and our kindness. And that really doesn’t compel people to get skinny, particularly children, who don’t even understand what they have done wrong (which is nothing). It just makes them lonely and depressed – feeding bad habits like binge eating – which leads to an actual problem with eating and weight into their teens and then into adulthood.
My solution? Just LEAVE PEOPLE ALONE. Stop feeding food anxiety with shame and humiliation, under the guise of “helping”. We live in a free society. Let people make their own decisions.
(I know these ads are supposed to target the parents, but they are hurting the children. I doubt fat parents of fat children will see these ads and miraculously change their lives – so all they are doing is making the kids even more ostracised and miserable.)
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I was overweight at the same age with puppy fat too. It too turned into height and boobs and hips. But I think you can see the difference between puppy fat and truly overweight and obese kids.
Also, why shouldn’t these kids have someone to speak up for them and say “Mum, Dad, whoever cares for me, what you’re doing isn’t good, it’s making me sick. It’s making me unable to join in at school”. The kids in these ads don’t have puppy fat that they’re going to grow out of. If they’re using things like kids being told they have HYPERTENSION or Type II diabetes, that is not right and needs to be addressed.
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Perhaps junk food packaging/ads will soon go the way of cigarettes/smoking?
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We cannot use the excuse that parents are not being educated enough. There is so much information out there now, and it’s not just avaliable to the ones who have a higher income or have private health insurance. You watch an obese mother walk down the street, nine times out of ten there will be an obese child and usually an obese father with her. It is just pure and simple laziness, thats it…not dressing it up to make anyone feel better, if your child is obese, if you are the person feeding the child their diet and not telling them to get off the couch and go outside to play, IT’S YOUR FAULT!
I work in childcare and have heard plenty of (overweight) mothers over the years tell the carers “I don’t know why they keep putting on weight, we eat healthy at home” but then we see them in the carpark before they come into creche feeding the child mcdonalds breakfasts in the car…..it’s not rocket science
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It seems to me that these ads are based in guilt and shame. The parents are manipulated to feel guilty about their children’s weight and the children are expected to feel self-conscious and ashamed.
I can’t understand how anyone thinks that this approach can work. Society has had a shaming attitude toward obesity for over two decades. People who are overweight are ridiculed and ostracised quite routinely. Has this helped the obesity rates to decline? Quite the opposite.
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Working in a shopping centre i see fat obese people waddling to the food court on a daily basis. I am amazed how many familys are over weight and feel sad for the kids who will never get a chance to use their full potential because they have not been shown due to laziness how to eat healthy and be active.
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I’m really not buying the argument that healthy foods are too expensive. I grew up in the 90′s in a family of 6 with a single mother on welfare and we had a healthy diet based on rice, bread, the odd chicken or rissole here and there and loads of fruit and veg because that’s all she could afford. I realise from other posts that food prices are different in America but I don’t see how the argument applies in Australia (which evidently has a higher percentage of overweight people than USA). Take Maccas, for example, on average it would be about $6 for a medium sized meal. Say you have a family of 4 to feed, a Maccas meal each will cost $24. Three Dominos pizzas would cost about $24 too. For the same amount of money one could buy a kilo of bananas, a kilo of potatoes, a kilo of carrots, a bag of rice, a bag of lentils and a jar of curry paste. That makes for a perfectly healthy and well balanced meal, with delicious fruit for dessert. I guess it’s much easier to drive your fat bum down to Maccas though. I have no sympathy whatsoever for overweight/obese adults. Children, however, have little say in what their parents give them to eat and so I really pity them. Seeing fat kids out with their fat parents is incredibly sad. I think the ad campaigns above are attention-grabbing and I really hope they lead to some change.
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This maybe so, but buying a bag of frozen chips and a box of fish fingers is definitely cheaper than making a stirfry.
And aside from this, low self-esteem (emotional eating) and poor portion control are more likely bigger contributing factors to obesity than eating McDonalds every night.
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“I don’t like going to school, all the other kids pick on me…”
maybe bullying is what we should be trying to effing stop. it’s those kids who need to get their act together, not the “fat” ones. childhood obesity is indeed a problem, but if you ask me bullying is a bigger one. teased for being nothing but fat… compared to selfish, vain, lazy, prejudiced, mean, ignorant, violent or anything else, is fat really the worst thing you can be? I got the shit bullied out of me for being a “freak” (aka the Wednesay Addams lookalike who learned to read before everyone else and gave her dolls tattoos) when I was at school and these kids don’t deserve that, whether it’s for being fat or weird or anything else. Bullying takes the fun of childhood. Being fat doesn’t. Get it straight.
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I think both do actually. Bullying IS a serious problem, but so are the potential health effects from being obese.
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I work in a primary school and I can see obesity is a real health concern amongst the kids. Thankfully, whilst bullying is not unusual, I have yet to come across an instance of it related to a child’s size. Obesity does take the fun out of being a kid though; they can’t move as freely, they’re often uncomfortable, have trouble keeping up with the other kids, and suffer from joint pain. My heart breaks watching these kids struggle to do physical thing most other kids enjoy.
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I would hate to see a good campaign be derailed by irrational fears it will cause an increase in teasing…
1. If 4 in 10 children in Georgia are overweight or obese, then they are not a very small minority in the class to be singled out.
2. Sorry, but children will find all manner of things to tease other kids about…too fat? Too skinny? Too dumb? Too smart?….
Or, that advertising should be about education instead…. Would that be like all the energy that has gone into sex education, yet how effective would you judge that to be with STIs going into overdrive?
Sometimes, people have just have to be told straight.
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I think the ads will be effective in bringing attention and perhaps momentary reflection for ones own obesity…but where from there? In addition to the fast food crisis in the US I really think the problem is lack of guidance and education in how to lead a healthy life. As someone posted below, a ‘caesar salad’ may be considered to be healthy but it is far from it..lots of ‘healthy’ foods are actually sugar laden such as a glass of orange juice. What these people need is not shame and judgement but step by step guidance to educate themselves on nutrition and empower them to change their diets for the long term.
I thought for many years that I was eating healthy but couldnt understand why I wasnt losing weight. I would eat all bran for brekky and salads for lunch and dinner..but didnt seem to realise that it only takes a small chocolate bar and a glass of wine to totally make all the other good choices redundant (this may sound obvious to some but it literally took YEARS for me to realise that EVERYTHING we consume matters!). Since adopting a healthy eating program 3 months ago I have shed 12kg. And it was easy. I eat delicious food and dont touch alcohol (ok that part is a little hard lol).
Like everything in life it comes back to education. Education empowers people and it is with that change occurs.
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I’m currently in the US on holiday and I have been amazed at how cheap fast food is so I can kind of understand why people buy it. I’m also amazed at the “healthy options” which seem to always be Caesar Salad (with really fatty dressing and masses of parmesan cheese). Many items are served with a side of chips or fries and soft drinks are served in small buckets.
A massive shakeup needs to happen and not just in Georgia.
I hope, as many other people have expressed, that there is more to this campaign than just the ads. People need to learn about nutrition panels, and this is also the case in Australia, where I work as a early childhood educator and am consistently dismayed by what people put in their children’s lunch boxes.
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I agree! That’s why my husband and I don’t eat out here anymore, even the restaurants (not fast food places) serve up MASSIVE servings and throughout the night they are constantly refilling your glass of soft drink! And yes their ‘healthy’ options are definitely NOT healthy!
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For some reason I missed this article when I was on MM last night, but thought I’d put my 2 cents in even if no one reads it now that all these comments have already been written.
Anyway, I am currently living in the US in one of the perhaps ‘fat’ states as people call it, i.e. not LA! Anyhow having lived here for about 8 months now I don’t blame people on gaining weight, I mean it’s ridiculous how CHEAP packaged and processed food is! It is literally so cheap to buy these things and for people who can’t afford it the healthy food, which is MUCH MUCH more expensive, well then they have no choice.
Literally nearly everything in the supermarket has corn syrup in it! My husband and I are lucky in that we earn good enough money over here to be able to shop at places like Whole Foods and get fruit and veg delivered to our house on a weekly basis. Our monthly food bills are not cheap, but what’s the alternative? Eating those processed, corn syrup laden foods.
Then there’s the exercise part of it – Forget seeing anyone walking on the streets here, I think in the time we have been here I’ve seen 2 people running outside. People literally drive everywhere here, without a car here pretty much you’re stuck at home.
But that’s not an excuse there are plenty of gyms around, but then again not everyone can afford a gym membership, again my husband and I are lucky because we have a gym in the apartment complex we live in, which we are paying a ridiculous amount of rent for.
Also a lot of these people who are living in poverty are probably living in the downtown areas, where crime rates are so high! I’ve been too scared to go downtown at night, my husband went with a friend once and came back, a grown man saying he has never been so scared in his life…drug dealings, people with guns/knives etc. I think the last thing on half of these people’s minds is nutrition and exercise, they are probably too concerned about getting shot! And I’m not joking when I say that, I’ve stopped watching the news here since nearly everyday it’s ‘this person got shot here’ and that person got stabbed there.
It’s all well and good to have these ads, but what does Georgia actually plan to do about it?
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It’s really interesting to hear your perspective.
Thanks for your comment.
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Thanks
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The govt subsidizes farmers to grow corn over there, and it’s used in a lot of food and for animal feed. I found it gave food a weird “undertaste” and really played havoc with our guts.
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God, I feel like one of those kids.
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You can make children aware of healthy lifestyles but they are not the ones shopping or packing lunchboxes. Parents need to set good examples and take some responsibility.
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Absolutely . Parents are very much accountable for their obese children.
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Parents are accountable for their obese children. They need to set a good example for them. If your child is obese you are the one soley responsible for the sad prediciment they are in
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if you think this is a real problem then question why the dept of education of NSW. cancelled classes in Home Economics teaching nutrition, it is very watered down and it depends on the strength of the teachers at the school how much they “get away” with by calling this subject a different thing
They are suppose to be teaching Technology and design instead, the whisper is that it costs less than kitchens.
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wow… blaming and shaming parents who probably have never been educated themselves about nutrition and intuitive eating, and the dangers of product advertising is never going to work to change the habits of a town or nation. All this sets up is a cycle of abuse for these children that do not do the food shopping or cooking, and guilt trips for parents who don’t know any better..
Where are the cooking classes, shopping classes, the nutrition classes? Why do we shame and blame but rarely do we go, “here this is what you can do to help yourself and your children”
Kids follow example.. it should be the parents targetted for their own health (food and exercise) and the kids will follow.. with understanding and compassion for their socio-economic status and cultural background – most crappy, ‘sometimes’ foods are cheap and filling, and who wants to go for a family walk when you might get mugged or murdered?
This is not the answer, and reeks of advertising bullshit rather than real assistance
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I disagree – it seems like nothing they have done in the past has made any effect so they need to make a strong point. They need the people to recognise that they have a weight problem before people even think of how they are going to address it.
The second phase of this campaign should then move to more of an assistance angle – the shopping/eating plans, cooking classes etc that you write of.
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also disagree.
people just completely ignore help and education in the form of cooking classes, lessons in nutrition etc. they just see it as unnecessary or entirely too much effort or time. look at someone like jamie oliver who has tried repeatedly to change eating habits in the UK, Australia or the US. people are completely resistant and stubborn to the fact that they are eating disgusting, processed shit every damn day of their lives, shortening their own life spans and those of their children. they’d rather just have the quick option than the healthy one. and i mean half of it is common sense. eg. why would you feed your child PIZZA for breakfast?? does that not seem wrong to people??
also, the father of a friend of mine was fostering/trying to adopt a child with his partner. this baby is the sweetest, cutest little girl, but her mother was obese and this poor baby is so overweight, they had to take it to a dietician to try and lower her weight. a dietician. and she was about six months old.
ergo, we’re a society of lazy idiots, and this ad recognises that something drastic needs to be done because people can’t look after themselves or their children.
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No Jess, SOME people ignore help and education, not all. Not a large proportion of people with overweight children feeds their kids pizza for breakfast. It’s nasty and vindictive to paint all overweight people and families with the same brush. There’s a lot of derogatory comments around here today. You can’t just say overweight people are all just stubborn, lazy idiots based on a few people you saw on Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. That was a TV show remember… They LOOK for stubborn idiots, or edit to make people look as a bad as possible.
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This ad campaign is not about the many people who eat well, eat moderate amounts and exercise, yet are still larger; it’s about those who wilfully ignore their own obesity, choose to do nothing about it, and whose children in turn suffer.
Surely if, as a parent, you discover that you have “never been educated … about nutrition and intuitive eating”, it is your responsibility to educate yourself, and hence prevent this cycle from being perpetuated?
When will the PC-crowd stop blaming others and demanding “real assistance”, asking our government to be their nanny, and take responsibility for themselves and their own children? It’s enough already.
First, you have to get their attention. I think the ads will do that.
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Why would someone educate themselves if they don’t know they are doing anything wrong?
You could apply your attitude to many things; domestic violence, alcholism, smoking, aboriginal health, poor literacy amongst socially disadvantaged groups. But it wouldn’t make it fair or right. Sometimes people need more assistance than us priveledged people who have never walked in their shoes. Sometimes people don’t know how to break these cycles.
I would suggest you take off your rose coloured glasses and step off your judges chair…
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Hi Anonymous,
The campaign is to make people aware that they are doing something wrong.
I suggested that first we need to get their attention, via the campaign, and once they are aware, people need to take more responsibility for themselves and their own children.
There have been countless campaigns about eating well and health. It’s taught in schools. It’s on TV (Biggest Loser, Jamie Oliver, KAK, etc.), it’s at your doctor and health clinic. Weight Watchers etc. have been around for ever. It’s everywhere. Yet 75% of parents are still unaware their kids are overweight – these are the people “who don’t know they are doing anything wrong”?
I suggest that some people are deliberately ignoring what they are being told, willful ignorance.
I disagree that you could apply my attitude to domestic violence, etc., those are your words and your (mis)interpretation, not mine.
And you might want to consider that you might be the one wearing the politically-correct rose coloured glasses…
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I’m not quite sure if you understand that for the average obese or very overweight person that the ignorance isn’t wilful. It is just ignorance. Yes the campaign might get people’s attention, but as obesity is an “epidemic” and putting strain on the health system, it is in fact a societal problem that needs to be addressed by our community and government. Leaving it to individuals to get educated themselves won’t work. There may not be any easy answer and parents of course have to be encouraged to take responsibility, but they need more than that.
The highest rates of obesity occur in lower SES areas and socially disadvantaged communities and the problem is complicated and multi-layered. To fix it we have to look at it through many lenses and work out the best way to help people educate themselves and apply it their lives. In the communities where obesity rates are highest they are facing a multitude of struggles at the same time:
- Poverty. It has been stated several times that processed and packaged food is cheaper in the US than fresh produce. When people are living under those kind of conditions, they’ll eat what they can get.
- violent and unsafe neighbourhoods with little or no facilities for encouraging excersise or positive social interaction
- low self esteem. If you have grown up in a cycle of poverty and living the ghetto, your focus is just on survival. Just getting by. Being fat is probably at the bottom of the list of many of these people’s worries. While some will decide they deserve better and break the cycle, many will feel helpless and powerless to change anything. Even depressed. These are not easy conditions to change poor eating habits in because for so many, eating is comfort.
In terms of how this campaign can work, there will be a group of people who will see it and be motivated to make the changes for themselves and their families. But there will also be a group who will see it and want to make the changes, but won’t know where to start and will feel overwhelmed, and a group who will see it and know they have a problem but feel that making changes is too hard and that they have worse problems to deal with, like staying alive and making rent money. The last two groups are the ones this campaign needs to focus on because they are the most vulnerable and their poorer living conditions means they have poorer health over all. Telling them to take responsibility and educate themselves is not an effective solution for people in these situations. It would be like telling an Aboriginal community to go and educate themselves on the benefits of going to school and take some responsibility for their children. We all know it doesn’t work. They need specific campaigns in schools to encourage attendance and they need more Aboriginal role models to motivate them.
Obesity is the same. It won’t be fixed by someone telling those people to fix it themselves. Whether or not you think it should is irrelevant, because quite simply, it won’t.
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I disagree. How on earth will they get all of these people to cooking classes etc. That will never happen.
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I have to say I like the idea of the ads and tag lines but am not able to watch the videos yet.
The majority of children who are overweight are overweight because of poor diet and lifestyle. Yes there are people who are built bigger and with conditions that influence their weight. Medication for brain cancer makes you balloon! I would hate for that person to be called lazy! BUT the majority is thanks to bad food, too much of it and not enough movement! Type 2 diabetes is primarily caused by lifestyle factors and the rise of type 2 diabetes is frightening.
A comparison these ads makes me think of…and I may be way out in crazy land for even thinking this but I’ll say it anyway…is about other diseases that affect children. If someone said “cancer takes the fun out of being a kid” it would be true! Cancer DOES suck. It would be horrible to have as a child. An overweight child or a child with cancer will still have love, joy and laughter in their lives but they WILL undoubtedly also unfortunately miss out on some joy. The person with cancer did not choose to have cancer or live a life that gave them cancer but it is a fact cancer would suck to have. An overweight person may or may not have made choices that lead to being overweight but however they got there it still sucks a little bit for them! The point I am struggling to make is that I like the ads because they are true! It would be a bit less fun not keeping up with your friends, being left out, not fitting on some rides. The bullying and teasing does need to stop but at the moment the reality is being overweight will make life very hard at school for a child and their health suffers too so why not stop beating around the bush and hit the nail on the head!
Also this may be defeatist of me but I don’t think bullying or teasing will ever stop. I think cyber bullying is scary and kids need extensive education on the effects of it and somewhat monitored use of computers but bullying in general? It’s been going on long before social media was around or childhood obesity is on the rise. I wasn’t fat so I was teased for my teeth, my friend wasn’t fat and had okay teeth so she was teased for her surname. I don’t know if this is a terrible view to hold and I think targeted and extensive planned bullying of an individual that causes them great pain can and should end because that’s not okay in any decade.
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Absolutely agree with you about bullying. It’s horrible but it’s also a fact of life. If it’s not your weight it’s your accent, your freckles, your mum’s car, your glasses, being smart, being stupid, etc.
It’s true that being far sucks. I’ve been a little, thought never dangerously, overweight my whole life. I was raised on healthy food but hated sport, I eat healthy food and exercise now. I don’t think these ads would have helped me at all, but then, maybe if I’d been obese, not just chubby, I’d have been more receptive.
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I like that these ads ask parents to look at their children. To ask themselves is my child over weight. Is my child being teased, sitting at home alone rather than interacting with other children. Is my child at risk of developing diseases.
As a school teacher I have had to have that uncomfortable conversation with too many parents. The one where they come to me to complain that their 6 year old is being called fat and I need to educate the rest of the class what fat means because their child is not over weight. While I do discuss with the class about respecting others, not using the term fat etc I also have to try to get these parents to look at their child and consider they may need to look into their child’s diet and exercise regime. And don’t get me started on the content of their lunch box.
With 75% of parents not realising that their child is over weight I can see what these ads are trying I achieve. I hope they are ran on tv during adult viewing times and in print that parents read.
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I wish I had a teacher like you. Through out Primary school and the start of Secondary school I was a fat kid and it was horrible. I was call the worst names and ostracised. I would cry to my parents but they would say you are ok, it is only puppy fat, you will grow out of it, don’t worry.
School years were horrid for me all because I was overweight. My parents never tried to get me to watch what I ate. I am not blaming them, but I wish now they had have done something for me.
I know if my children had been overweight I certainly would have only kept healthy foods in the cupboards for them and made sure they had regular exercise, none of which my loving parents did for me. They weren’t to know in those days.
No doubt about it, kids can be cruel.
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The problem is we have two issues rolled into one, that is, childhood obesity as a major public health problem that needs to be addressed, somehow, and the issue of being a target of bullying and shaming when you are labelled as fat. Addressing the problem as purely a health issue is very difficult because the moment you draw attention to overweight children, you are, in fact, labelling them and pointing them out. While this isn’t necessarily the same as taunting and abuse, it’s probably not exactly self-esteem building either and goes against that other important cause — body acceptance.
There are no easy answers to the problem of childhood obesity, but the best one is positive education. Education about the benefits of exercise and healthy eating choices (and what exactly that means), which needs to be targeted to parents as much as children. It’s no coincidence that there is a strong correlation between overweight children and socio-economic status. These ads, while they probably make some people uncomfortable, seem to be targeting people that have probably encountered a number of educational and financial barriers to when it comes making better dietary choices for themselves and their families. Whether it’s ‘the right’ approach is debatable, but it will be interesting to see if there are any measurable results from this ad campaign.
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Seriously! If we want to get rid of childhood obesity we have to get rid of junk food and junk food advertising. We adults are the guilty ones for accepting the status quo. Shame shame for making kids the target.
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I agree.
We also need to look at portion control.
As a kid, we ate chips once a week at home, for dinner, but we had 6 or 8 chips each (equivalent to one potato, I suppose), not a huge pile on the plate. Junk food is OK, within reason, but portions have gone crazy.
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I have two opinions on these adds,
First as an obese child I got mercilessly teased day after day,by not only the kids but my teachers ect. I look back at photos and all I see was an incredibly tall girl I don’t look fat. But all the teasing led to me being to afraid to eat in front of people,so I would go home and eat in the afternoon and cry.the teasing was not only verbal it also got physical.on occasion.it’s a horrible existence so I stoped being physically active because kids would laugh when I tried to play sport. So I stoped. And the weight just kept piling on. Till now at the age of 21 I have decided to get drastic surgery to prevent the cycle of loosing and gaining the weight.so I can be “normal”.I don’t eat junk food often but because I am big it I eat more then nessary. Can’t wait till November
Second as I have my own son now i am very active in making good choices for my son he now is 15 mths old. He has not and will not know of mcdonalds ect I cook his vegetables and a form of meat every night breakfast is weatbix and for lunch a samwhich or salad things that he can feed himself. Snacks are fruit or yogurt. Water or milk are the only drinks available. I will not let him have the life I did.I do not blame my parents I only had meat and three veg every night. But I never learnt portion control :$.
Third I hope these adds don’t run on prime time. There is already enough shame that is heaped on kids. By the media.magazines ect.
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I’m so sorry to hear about how much you were teased
That kind of thing is almost impossible to really get over. But I’m so impressed about your attitude with your son. He’s lucky to have you!
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Thank you
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I’m going to go against the grain and I’m going to say that I think these ads are terrible and they shame fat people, especially vulnerable children and it guilts their parents.
Before some of you start commenting that I must be “a fat person” or “one of those women who doesn’t try to lose weight”, I’ll stop you right there. I’m not fat or overweight. I just believe that shaming people about ANYTHING is not a way to fix any problems.
Instead, the ads should have a mixture of fat,slim, overweight, underweight all sorts of people who eat the wrong foods and don’t exercise. Put a slim kid playing playstation all day and eating Mcdonalds, and point out that this sort of behaviour causes XYZ diseases. Put a fat kid and a slim kid together, even! Send the message that eating bad food and not exercising is bad for everyone.
While I accept that many obese people and children are obese because of the above behaviour, there are plently of people who you can’t judge their health by their size.
My mother and her sister are an example of this. My aunty is a police officer. She is a super fit woman, marathon level running. She eats reasonably healthy, yet she has always been abit “bigger”. My mother, is small & slim. She smokes, and she allows herself to eat some meals only when she has “earned it” by working/working around the house/exercising. She skips lunch if she hasn’t exercised or done physical work around the house. She often refuses to eat dinner and has a couple of pieces of fruit (and no it’s not because she has eaten a big lunch so she’s not very hungry) instead.
My aunty has always envied my mother and felt ashamed of her body. She has cancer, and is as slim as mum is. Yes, it took cancer to make her slim.
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TOTALLY agree. My views were not taken well earlier. But shaming is not productive. These ads should not be another source calling these kids names.
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You bring up some very valid points; I think as a society we are so preoccupied with ‘slim’ being the ideal we forget people are all made different and have different ‘set points’ with their weight.
Being skinny doesn’t represent being healthy (ie my chips and chocolate devouring twig of a brother with his eyes glued to the TV 24/7), nor does being large necessarily mean someone is unhealthy or unfit (like your Aunt).
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So hear you with your mother. SO hear you.
You’re right that healthy eating in everyone is what it should be about. Healthy behaviour (she says while sitting at a computer eating a blueberry bagel). But I think it has to start somewhere, and that somewhere is probably with those who are most at risk of immediate issues. Which, apparently, are the people in Georgia.
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Completely agree. Shame is not a health promotion strategy.
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I think the ad is outrageous! Shaming children is reprehensible. There are other ways. A first start might be serving healthy meals in schools. I know for a fact that pizza is considered a vegetable by the school systems. The children are served pizza, fried chicken nuggets, etc. There are soda machines in the lunch rooms…..give me a break. How about starting a program of nutrition classes for the students. How about starting a program of nutrition classes for the parents. I do not claim to have the answers, I just know that shame is not a healthy motivation.
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I have mixed feelings about these adds. On a personal level, I was an overweight, no actually, obese teenager, hitting 130kg at 20. I’ve gotten rid of a lot of this weight, but still struggle at times. We always ate reasonably healthy food at home, but it was my concept of “healthy” snacks that got in the way. And whilst my parents aren’t uneducated, I wish they had taken me in hand and suggested some changes.
As a health professional, we see so many overweight, unhealthy children coming through. And anecdotally, a large portion of their parents are are also, you guessed it, large. It astounds me when parents bring in hot chips, maccas, kfc etc for their child who presented with abdo pain!
But then on the other hand, we also see too many teenage girls with eating disorders. Twelve year olds, who weigh twenty kg and still think they are “fat.” I wonder what effect these adds would have on such individuals.
I don’t know what the answer is!
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My adult daughter who lives with me has problems maintaining a healthy weight. We eat healthily at home but she eats poorly when out with the crowd. It was getting to be serious. I suggested to her that, if she wanted, we could weigh her every week on the day she pays board. So long as she doesn’t put on any weight, she gets an amount deducted from her board. If she puts on any weight, her board stays the same. While weight is not the only indicator of health, knowing that she has healthy food at home to eat and positive support from me, she likes this approach, she has actually lost weight and feels happier. There’s no shaming involved and it works.
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I think perhaps the whole campaign would work better if it featured kids and their parents talking about how they didn’t realise they were overweight, how they addressed it and the positive benefits from doing so. Rather than kids watching these ads and thinking “I know exactly how you feel” they should be encouraging them to assess their own status, talk to their parents about the issues and offering some motivation for them to make changes. The ads highlight the issue of childhood obesity, and the effects, but offer no incentive or tools to elicit change.
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That’s a good point. They should be accompanied with inspiration. If they have to be used that’s how it should work.
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It really terrifies me that “75 percent of parents with obese children were not aware that their children were overweight, while 50 percent of parents didn’t realize that childhood obesity was a problem to begin with”. WTF??
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I think the ads are powerful. I take the point of people who have said that ‘shaming’ doesn’t work, but I don’t see it shaming the children. It is highlighting that they are missing out on things or suffering and they don’t want to.
With 1 in 3 children overweight in Georgia, they are past the point where a softer, more PC approach will work. They need stark, bleak images.
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I agree that these ads are powerful, I also think there is a “shaming” aspect of these commercials, directly for parents, but more subtly for children. The sounds, black and white, unhappy faces etc.
I think the problem can also come from children who are not overweight and see these ads and can shame others. I agree that Georgia clearly needs a tougher campaign, but I do feel for kids who are overweight (i was one) they already cop so much flak…
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I found them really sad and the last one made me cry. I agree with some of the views here that some parents are just plain lazy. I have just spent 2 weeks on holidays with my kids and one of them got a 3D ds for Xmas but they all spent the majority of their time riding scooters, playing on the beach and at the pool being active, I found the more active we were the less junk food they wanted and the constant reqests were for watermelon and other fruits.. I will certainly take this on board. They eat pretty healthy in our normal life but there is always room for improvement! I am a full time working single mother and at times fall into the trap of being too tired to cook or fresh food too expensive etc.. Not any more.
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I think the campaign would have been better if it had focused on parents/adults talking about their own experiences with childhood obesity and the healthy futures they want for their own children, and kept any children used in the videos faceless/unidentified. I think it has used a shaming tactic that will only isolate overweight kids even more. I just fail to see how this campaign can be successful when it really does nothing to educate about nutrition, and nothing to put any responsibility on the parents (except the last one – “mum why am I so fat?” and the one about “i thought she was just big boned like me”. They also need to take the focus away from “I always get picked on” and focus on health and nutrition. Pointing out that kids get picked on because they’re fat will only serve to add fuel to the fire. Kids get picked on for loads of things. We wouldn’t run a campaign saying “having red hair takes the fun out of being a kid” – “mum why do i have red hair, everyone hates me”, we have campaigned about tolerance and anti-bullying. This shouldn’t change for overweight children. Kids should not be taught that if they are picked on for something that they have to change it and that is exactly what this campaign does in many ways.
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So true! Fat isn’t who these kids are, they are individuals and have aspirations, feelings, hopes and are intelligent. It just further pushes a mind set that fat is who you are.
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Preach! For the ‘PC gone mad’ crowd, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Shaming people doesn’t make them very receptive to your message, and is just plain gross. This campaign is far too simple a solution for such a complex issue. I would also like to see the Republican reaction to these ads, considering how much shit they give Michelle Obama for her healthy eating campaign (which is a much better message).
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Its really very sad. Its even more sad because most children who are overweight are that way because their parents have allowed it to happen. I think its great to go against the trend of being PC, avoiding the truth about such things and protecting parents feelings. If they are damaging their childs health they need to be directly confronted and embarressed into addressing the issues. I have 2 kids who are really lean. People often comment on how skinny they are, yet they are within the healthy weight range and I remember being like them when I was a child. I think we are out of touch with what is normal weight and what is underweight / overweight. And its ok to comment that a child is skinny, yet I cant comment that somene elses child is fat because that would probably end my friendship
. So we use words like ‘solid, well covered, well fed, strong’….when the child is actually really overweight.
I try and only give my children healthy food in their lunchboxes but its really difficult when they complain that their friends have chips and chocolate and their apple and banana is boring compared with that. Most of my kids friends come from families where both parents are tertiary educated so I can only imagine in areas with a different demographic there must be schools where lunchboxes are an absolute nightmare.
I hope it works because the messages we have been receiving until now arent working and parents are in denial.
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Lu I’ve said the same thing to many people!! I am naturally lean, and people think it’s okay to say “you’re too skinny, you need to put on some weight”, yet it would be rude to say to someone “you’re a bit fat, you need to lose some weight”!! Either way, it’s insulting.
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The problem with these ads are even though they are directed at adults, children will see them and it will reinforce just how awful they feel about themselves.
I myself was an overweight child and remember many awful things people said about me.
The problem when your a child is you don’t totally understand food and complex things such as sugar vs. fat.
Being a child/teenager I would drink juice instead of coke, yoghurt instead of icecream.
But it wasn’t untill I became an adult that I really understood food.
Also people say its the parents fault they feed their kids this crap, but out of a family of four kids who all grew up eating the same things I was the only fat one which as an adult I understand that I have to be very careful what I eat to monitor my weight.
But was my mother going to do ? let the rest of my siblings eat cake and not give any to her fat child ?
David Gillespie’s book sweet poison was my savior and changed the way I view lo-fat & diet products and why there are so many overweight people today.
I am still overweight myself but slowly slowly I am winning the battle.
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Completely agree. I was overweight growing, completely aware of this too as adults don’t STFU. I used to try and starve myself, do 100 situps before bed every night and cry my eyes out when I got home from school. It wasn’t until my thyroid disease was diagnosed and treated that I was able to lose weight.
Let’s concentrate on the healthy eating and regular exercise message, not shaming people for the number on the scale.
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This story is my story too. My parents tried really hard, even taking me to the dietician, which did help somewhat. I don’t blame my parents, they raised my younger brother the same way as me & he has always been slim.
It did upset me that I was always the chubby friend in my group. I personally couldn’t understand that food – amounts & type were what made me gain weight. I was just too young to understand. As a teenager I went to weight watchers & finally got success!
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I work in advertising and have been guilty of working up similar insights based on how we think people feel. BUT – we’re only story tellers and often we’re missing the deeper drivers in people’s behaviour – the result – we end up feeding the problems in our society through this shaming activity.
I have just been reading some work by Brene Brown (you might have heard of her through her TED talk on Vulnerability).
http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html
Anyway two weeks into holidays, I have read two of her books. Both out of personal interest. Both books have interesting implications for advertising like this and how it can actually feed the issues.
Her first piece of research looks at the notion of using ‘shame as a motivator for behavioural change’. Through a series of interviews she argues there is NO MOTIVATION FOR BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE BY SHAMING PEOPLE.
Shame itself puts individuals in a very powerless position. It makes individuals feel alone and powerless to change. Her conclusion is that shame dies and behaviour starts to change when people feel safe to voice their shame – basically feel comfortable to talk about it. Through this they develop what Brown calls ‘Shame Resilience’ – a mix of compassion, connection and empathy.
Perhaps an understanding of these human drivers might have resulted in quite a different approach to motivate change – perhaps access to someone safe to talk to – perhaps some support to take steps to change. Perhaps not a 30 second ad (which most likely aired at peak times) to really add fuel to the fire.
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Agree wholeheartedly Rosie. After years of working with people in behaviour changes for better health, I’ve seen shame work once or twice, maybe, at the most.
Coaching, support, identifying the problems in peoples lives which prevent them changing and thinking creatively to get around those problems works. Two heads are better than one.
From an economic perspective, using limited resources to put people on the ground to help is better than investing in advertising that won’t work. One health professional can achieve so much change, it is worth every cent spent.
If you ignore the human drivers behind behaviour, you do so at your peril.
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I work in health promotion and to me it seems a bit controversial to be using the kids photos – but I also admire the rawness of the campaign.
The website could do with some work – rather than offering ‘tips’ that most people know (less tv time, good sleep routine), they could go into more detail so parents can say ah there’s a good tip that I can actually incorporate!
I agree that parents do not know if their kids are overweight – you can’t always tell!
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The first thing that struck me about these ads is that I feel terrible for the children that star in them. Yes, a visual reality is needed. But that’s always the first thing I think of when I see obese children in the Media. Will there classmates see these ads? How will they react? Teaching a child sympathy in the schoolyard can be a terribly difficult thing to do.
Childhood obesity is a very serious issue. It can also be a part of growing up. I cringe at the thought of growing up with this obsession with the obese. I was 70 kg at age 11/12, and I looked big, and 10 kg all came off very naturally when I turned 13 in a matter of months. In no way do I think I was obese, or think I have any idea of the hardships these kids go through growing up, but kids grow up and they put on weight, and they have different body shapes. It’s such a hard task to find a line between teaching kids and young teenagers about being healthy and have them being terrified about developing hips and stomachs and boobs.
Everyone’s journey is different I guess.
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I hate to sound, well, cruel, but 70kg at 11/12 is not normal, unless you happened to be exceptionally tall and muscular for your age (and even then).
I don’t wish to comment on your individual circumstances, but as a society if we’ve come to the point where we DO see that weight range as ‘average’ for someone that young, there is something amiss.
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I was 5″2, still am. I know I was not normal but I was giving time to let my body do naturally what puberty is meant to do. I developed early and then my body balanced out. I think ads like this would have made me hate myself for no reason because 6 months later my body was different again, for the better.
Do you think 60 kg at 5″2 is “not normal”?
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Again, I don’t want especially to extend comment on your current individual circumstances. You could bench-press wrestlers and have the muscle and bone mass of a one. You may not. I don’t know and I don’t particularly care – you’re an adult (I assume) who considers their body balanced and that’s all there is to it.
But 70kg for an ELEVEN year old is not normal and shouldn’t be considered to be for an average kid, which was the point I was trying to make. The day society sees that as nomal for the general population of kids that age is the day society does a great disservice to those kids (and to their parents).
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It is at the top end of the healthy weight range for an adult Lani. For a finer (and likely much less developed at that young age) frame, overweight. That is not to be cruel, I am sure you are and were gorgeous just as you are. I am about just under 5″2 and 47kg. I’m not underweight at all. Obviously frame size accounts for a lot (I have been 59kg and was slightly overweight), but I think there are a lot of people who actually don’t know what their natural ideal weight range is.
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From a health promotion perspective, the website which supports the campaign is brilliant.
The advertising is not so great. Shame works in one of two ways. It will shame people into doing something or it will shame, demotivate and further isolate people from the help they need. It frequently demotivates so the advertising and money spent on it is a bit risky – it could actually backfire. It most likely will backfire going on previous campaigns of this ilk.
I would prefer advertising that shows professionals and peers supporting parents and children so they do not feel alone. Supporting people and making them *feel* that they will be supported through making behaviour change has a greater chance of success. Advertising showing groups of children and parents working positively to create change would send this message.
The belief that you have to shock people into changing unhealthy lifestyles has never been demonstrated to get the desired results. Think of the number of people still having unprotected sex and the grim reaper campaign. Currently, the numbers of people contracting STD’s is still increasing.
Will be interesting to see if this campaign achieves results.
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I’d suggest there’s a third response, too – Fuck you. I’m fine the way I am and it was good enough for my Momma and Daddy and it’s good enough for me and my kids.
Like when Jamie Oliver did his Food Revolutions. He had radio jocks slamming him for wanting to make people have healthier food available! The one in America did come around though and became one of his biggest fans.
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Haha Kris … I had to read that twice. Wasn’t sure if the F.U. was to my comment in general. So, agree with you. I actually have had people tell me F.U. and mind my own business in my job. Not many though. I have to say though that I love working with people like this. I don’t give up, just approach them differently. It works mostly. Some people just don’t want to change though and there’s nothing you can do.
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Hahaha! Where did my inverted commas go??
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Oooh look … there they go … ” ”
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Oh I feel sorry for the young actors and actresses who star in these commercials. Even though they have consented to their faces and bodies being used in the campaigns and are (I assume) paid for their time, it has to sting doesn’t it?
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I would assume the actors are not from Georgia…in fact, the campaign was probably made in another state altogether….
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I feel sorry for them too. Presumably the parents consented to them not the children themselves. I find that shameful in itself. Parents have allowed their children to be put out there for ridicule. I really doubt whether the ads are going to get the desired affect. I think they would have been better off having fat parents talking about their childhood obesity stories and how they want to give their children healthier, happier childhoods and adulthoods. Make it REALLY about the parents instead of shaming a poor innocent child who is now no longer faceless but a target for bullying.
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I haven’t looked at the ads but wanted to comment on childhood obesity generally. Both my husband and I were very overweight as children and let me tell you, the fat kid never leaves. Although we are both now in our ideal weight range, we both continually struggle with our weight and have warped views of our bodies.
It’s really important to tackle childhood obesity. My concern is that with kids increasing in size these days, what would have been considered overweight 20 years ago is now considered normal.
It’s definately an issue that needs to be addressed. Not only in USA, but also Australia.
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I think they’re great, no tip-toeing about the parents feelings. Honestly, I feel like there are a LOT of immature parents out there today. I see Gen X parents almost every single day displaying general laziness and disregard to their children. The number one thing I see is the parent playing on their phone while their child does something dangerous – like walk onto the road, throw their cutlery, get on an escalator by themselves – and the parent doesn’t even come close to noticing. It doesn’t surprise me that there are such high obesity rates in the western world, nor do the results of that survey surprise me. A “who? me?” attitude towards the whole thing!
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The ads are definitely provocative, and I think they would strike a chord with any parent. I just hope that there are positive and encouraging support options available for the parents that do watch the ads and decide to make changes. It would most likely be a dramatic shift in lifestyle for the whole family and is not just about healthy food options but impacts everything from time as a family to household budgeting.
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As someone who was overweight and who has worked damn hard to get rid of the weight I believe that children’s weight issues is the responcibility of the caregivers and not the corporations. Their job is not to care, it’s to make money. Accept that it is your job to be responsible for your child’s emotional and physical wellbeing
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Agree with most of them, especially as they’re targeted at the parents rather than the kid. Agree with JJ’s point about showing them during adult viewing hours, not showing them to the kids. The last one was the most powerful for me (although that kid didn’t look fat to me, maybe that just shows I’d be one of the parents who didn’t realise!).
However, I did not like Tina’s one saying kids pick on her. Frankly, if kids want to pick on you, they will find something about you to pick on, it could be your weight, it could also be your hair colour, skin colour, the clothes you wear, how you blow your nose! Anything! It doesn’t need to be logical. I got picked on for my name, for being too skinny, for being blonde…
Losing weight won’t stop them. We had a kid go from being overweight to thin & muscular over school holidays once. He dropped 20kg in 2 months. Then the kids at my school picked on him for “being anorexic” and claimed he was on steroids.
I don’t think the motivation to lose weight should be because kids are picking on you. That should be motivation to end bullying behaviour. The ones that focussed on the health implications were better, for me.
But, that said, if it was the one that worked…
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Exactly. Bullies will always find something to pick on a kid about.
Agree with your other points too
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Can we have these ads here??? PLEASE!!!?? I was an obese child and adult until the age of 41. It was only after I had my own children that I realised the messages my parents gave me were so wrong. They blamed ME for my obesity and judged me according but I didn’t do the grocery shopping, cook the meals, control the TV viewing, discourage participation in sport as it required time on thier behalf. They constantly abdicated their responsibility. In my own household I don’t have any drink accept water, very little “junk food”, generous amounts of fruit vegetables. Meals are all eaten at the dinner table and the kids help out preparing them. We eat fast food on occasions but it is not a regular ocurrence. My kids eat lollies and soft drink but they are for parties etc. Sport and physical activity are encouraged and modelled. TV, computer and gaming are resticted. Both my husband and I do regular physical activity and are involved with the kids sports. My husband and I both work. It is a very busy household but we see health as a priority and are willing to put effort into it. I believe my parents simply felt their was nothing they could do but an 8 year old is no more responsible for their lifestyle than they are for the family finances!! Blaming the child just leads to guilt and self loathing. I KNOW!!! Parents need to wake up and start accepting that this is their job…parenting is about making hard decisions like cooking healthy meals NOT buying fast food.
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Well done Andrea for turning your health around & being such a wonderful role model to your children. Those childhood habits can be so difficult to break. My niece is very overweight & she is only 11yo, my sister (her mum) is also overweight. I worry all the time about her future & have raised her weight a couple of times to my sister & even bought her a book on the subject. But so frustratingly she is in denial over her responsibility & constantly blames my niece for the situation. I’m not sure what else I can do? What is going to get through to her? I know that my niece has been bullied at school & is now very self conscious about her body. It’s just a really sad situation.
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I think they are hard hitting and maybe the people that have an objection to the adds are those that can see that the responsibility of what young children eat is that of the parents. YOu cannot blame schools or the mcdonalds down the road – it comes back to what parents are buying and what they let their children eat. And yes – I do understand that some are medical conditions that cause obesity or medications that have an adverse effect on metabolism – but I would think that these are not the norm. I see everyday some of the rubbish that is put into kids lunchboxes at school – what happened to fruit and a sandwich. And yes – we have health education and daily pe at school, our canteen has the highest healthiest rating possible – so heaps of schools are trying to educate children about healthy eating and exercise – but you can’t tell them what to eat – that responsibility is solely the parents. There adds are aimed at parents not the kids – but hopefully the kids will benefit.
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I think these are brilliant. PC doesn’t come into it when these children have diseases that were easily preventable. Bravo.
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I think these ads are great!
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Whilst ads targeting parents to raise awareness is a good thing, I’m not sure using shame is a good tactic. If we were to try and use this tactic for other eating disorders it’d be much clearer that it doesn’t work. It almost seems that there’s is some part of us that believes this is okay because of how acceptable ‘fat shaming’ is in our society.
They need to look to other causes of obesity. Georgia has the first highest rate of poverty in the United States (source: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9POBAIG3.htm). The link between unhealthy eating and poverty is huge. Parents who are poor are more likely to reach for junk food for their kids than parents who can afford both the time and the money to prepare meals with fresh ingredients. Parents who are poor are more likely to be going through mental and physical health issues themselves or working multiple jobs that mean they’re often absent from their children’s lives – and we know that when families sit down and eat together there are less likely to be eating disorders within the family. If parents are often absent from their children’s lives they will often give them ‘treats’ to make up for it. Often unhealthy food choices are more ‘filling’, so if money is an issue they will choose foods that make them feel more full (for example, white bread – cheap and unhealthy). It’s little ways like this where children living in poverty are disadvantaged when it comes to making healthy food choices.
This is what Georgia should be targeting. But sadly, lowering poverty rates does not seem to be very high on the political agenda of US states where survival of the fittest and the Republican-capitalist-individualist mentality seems to be the norm.
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You’re right – not to mention, parents living in poor areas are reluctant to let kids walk to school because they fear the neighbourhood, and probably can’t afford bikes or the time to teach a child to ride one. A kid who is ferried around by car will likely not grow up into a public transport user and so probably won’t get any incidental exercise. This can mean the difference between overweight and obesity.
You’re right, again, about the increasing acceptability of fat shaming. Fat people are treated like smokers now, with the kind of nosiness and discourtesy we’d be shocked and horrified to find directed at us.
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