The billboard orders you to drop the Krispy Kreme
If there's one thing I can count on, there's going to be something in the news about saving the fat kids. If it's not the fault of the schools, then the parents are to blame. A $250,000 public awareness campaign will be launched in Boston tomorrow and check it out:
Because if there's one thing this world needed, it was more media images telling overweight kids that they are doomed. Wait, there's more.
This entire argument seems to be "You clearly didn't understand the first 24854 messages that it's not good to be fat, so we'll just say it again in a different way." And maybe shaming parents will work. Maybe kids are like puppies to be swatted on the nose with a newspaper. Maybe BF Skinner was wrong and avoidance learning is better than positive reinforcment of desired behaviors. Maybe I just haven't been told that I'm fat enough times for it to really sink in.
One billboard shows an overweight child's lower legs and feet on a scale next to the words, "Fat Chance," along with a list of the health risks of obesity. A second billboard shows the back of an overweight child and asks, "If that's your kid, what are you waiting for?"
Because if there's one thing this world needed, it was more media images telling overweight kids that they are doomed. Wait, there's more.
...the images may be jarring and even insulting to some parents. "People are concerned that parents may become upset by it," said Green. "There is the risk of turning some people off, but I'm hoping it won't, and will be the first step toward developing awareness if their child is obese."
This entire argument seems to be "You clearly didn't understand the first 24854 messages that it's not good to be fat, so we'll just say it again in a different way." And maybe shaming parents will work. Maybe kids are like puppies to be swatted on the nose with a newspaper. Maybe BF Skinner was wrong and avoidance learning is better than positive reinforcment of desired behaviors. Maybe I just haven't been told that I'm fat enough times for it to really sink in.
posted by Weetabix at 1:59 PM
8 Comments:
In the same way that anti-smoking ads didn't work on smokers, I really don't see this working on the intended audience fo these ads - parents. Parents know their children are fat, they see them everyday fer christ's sake.Parent don't need to be told they are failures as parents because their children don't look like other "normal" children. The same message could have been more effectively shown with a positive perspective. And as for the target audience, let's break it down into specifics. Who are these parents? Surely not the affluent middle-class. It must be the low-income parents who already feel like failures, now compounded with the idea that what few groceries they can manage to bring home with the minimum wage from their under-paid jobs are unacceptable.
Yes, raise awareness about the problem of childhood obesity, but don't alienate the only allies you have - the parents - by making them feel like failures. Because that guilt just gets passed on down.
I think I remember seeing those billboard when I was in the Bay Area. Don't they feature a female doctor's face looking worried? Funny, they have the same message, but it's totally different than actually featuring the picture of a kid.
Admittedly, I've got an emotional bias on this, but it seems like if you take this from a problem solving standpoint: if there are contributing factors (root causes, if you will) to the obesity problem in children, then it would make sense to set forth an awareness program about the root causes rather than just pointing out the effect and assuming that everyone knows how to solve it.
I have a hard time believing that a parent (regardless of income) would choose to have a kid with a weight problem. And yet, there are kids with weight problems. Repeating the same mantra isn't going to do anything and might, in some instances, add to a kid's idea that for whatever reason, they are a bad kid, obviously, because they are overweight. Putting pressure on parents without giving them the tools for change might actually make things worse, since some might think the answer is just to remind the kid that s/he's fat or create emotionally-charged episodes about food to the point, to the point where pleasing the parent is about going hungry. Boy howdy, THAT doesn't exactly create a healthy relationship with food.
So, you asked for a suggestion and here's mine: focus on creating positive, non-judging ways to increase the instances of good (healthy) behaviors. And obviously get the damned funnel cakes out of the schools.
Oh, that last anonymous was me.
I think LA has the same campaign as the bay area, but I'm not quite sure. I feel very strongly that the ads running here are totally misguided. They manage to convey an emotional reaction that "fat is bad" for kids, but they give ZERO information about healthy eating or exercise or where to find information to reduce childhood obesity.
I wrote a rant about it on my livejournal: http://thatgirljj.livejournal.com/582470.html
I totally agree with what Jackie said about focusing on lifestyle and nutrition and exercise for kids without making it about obesity.
If normal-weight kids have bad habits surrounding nutrition and exercise, the chances are they could become overweight later in life. It's not like thin kid = no problem! Let them do what they want!
I think childhood obesity is definitely a problem, but we can't single out kids and shame them for their size. Ads that have no useful information and are just about fearmongering don't help anything.
At first, when I read Jen's comment about the risk of being overly sensitive to the obesity stigma, I was thinking that fatness is the last acceptable prejudice our society has left. But then I wonder if some of the stigma isn't because no one ever talks about it in a way that is factual and doesn't raise one's emotional guard. Unfortunately, showing a picture of someone's fat kid is intended to do just that. It could be argued that they NEED to create an emotional response to drive the point home. Well, honestly, that is arguably the intent of the guy across the street yelling "Hey fattie!"
Perhaps if we could approach this problem with the same non-emotional response as having, say, an untied shoelace, it would be a little more cut and dried. After all, there are undeniable health risks involved (tripping, falling on someone, etc), but no one ever felt bad about themselves for having an untied shoelace. It was just something that needed to be corrected. And there wouldn't be billboards depicting Jane as a bad mother because she let her kids walk around with loose laces, but perhaps there would be tips about tying better knots and wearing velcro shoes. And it seems laughable to expect that a kid would refuse to wear shoes for fear of having an untied shoelace. But really, shoelaces do not equal BMIs and society has decided to base a lot of value on how closely you match its idea of beauty. I don't have a good solution, because I see both sides of the argument. I applaud the idea that they're trying to make things better, but the way they are going about it just sucks and may end up doing more harm than good.
Mo raises a good point, because not every thin kid gets a pass and will continue to coast on their fantastic metabolism for their entire life. The increase in obesity among children is a symptom of a larger problem. By focusing those funds on establishing good habits early on for all kids, then everyone benefits.
God, I need some chocolate after that. (I AM KIDDING) (MAYBE)
This is supposed to bring awareness to the problem? I don't know. Are parents really so dumb that they don't know their kid is fat? I mean if I think about my own parents, I'm pretty sure they were aware that I was a fat kid.
But maybe...
I can just imagine my mom (ca. 1977) driving past one of these PSA billboards and having some sudden epiphany...You mean...my child...she is fat? OH MY GOD! Would she have raced home and slapped that baloney sandwich out of my hand?
No, I'm guessing she would have done what she always did: Love me for being smart and beautiful.
So-why not take the $250,000 used for this "awareness" campaign and start an afterschool educational and/or exercise programs for ALL pre-school or elementary aged children? Because, you know, a lot of the funding for programs like that has been cut over the years (even as school administrators were making decisions to do things like sell fast food and soft drinks to their young charges).
This is a difficult one, because I would describe myself as a 'fat kid'. Though perhaps now I'm too old to be considered a kid, but it wasn't so long ago that I was at school.
Yes, parents need to be made aware of the risks. Yes, something needs to be done - however I'm not sure what's the right way to go about it.
I'm from the UK and we have real problems with obesity here. I don't blame my parents however, they have tried (they have nagged!). This 'encouragement' they gave me certainly didn't help, but made me feel terribly self-concious, sulky and make me want to prove them wrong, that I CAN be big and beautiful. (They have never been told about my boyfriends, one of which I dated for over 2 years, purely because they wouldn't want to believe that someone could accept me the way I am.)
Moving on, recently I visited Finland and the way Scandanavians live is completely different to that in the UK. They still have McDonalds etc, but the availability of fresh, healthy food for low prices was far greater than that in the UK. The whole time we were there we would eat salads - so cheap and tasty! Their whole lifestyles seemed different, I'm still unsure exactly how, but everyone recycled, used bicycles and cared for the environment. Their obesity levels are hardly a patch on the levels in the UK. I think the UK and USA could learn a great deal from Scandinavia in terms of health and general living.
Okay, that was a bit of a ramble...love the blog by the way!
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