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.
15 Comments:
I love this post--because it's so true! I was a heavy kid growing up and all the family and friends telling me how fat I was and do I actually want to eat that did nothing to help me lose weight or be active or any of the natural things kids do. Instead, I sulked, snuck food, and used being fat as a form of rebellion as a teenager. I can't imagine how I would have survived if the entire city of Boston thought I was fat.
A similar campaign has been ongoing here in the Bay Area for about a year now. I don't think the point is to make kids feel bad about themselves, but rather to raise awareness among parents that childhood obesity is a significant public health problem, one that they have the power to mitigate.
I am curious as to how those of you who would oppose this campaign or the BMI on the report card thing would propose that public health officials go about otherwise combatting childhood obesity? It seems to me that SOME kind of awareness campaign needs to be a part of the strategy.
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.
Yeah, there are several different billboards here, some which have children on them, and some which show "doctors." There are also television commercials in the same campaign that focus on healthy eating habits and which show both chubby and normal weight kids. I haven't seen the Boston ads, but the ones here don't show extremely obese kids, and I think that part of the message of the ads is to show what kind of body type might be reason for concern.
While I would agree that most parents would not choose to have a kid with a weight problem, the fact that childhood obesity has doubled since the late 1970s (a time frame too short to represent a change in the gene pool) says to me that many parents could take greater steps to ensure a healthy environment at home. I also agree that an effective public health campaign has to give parents the tools for tackling the problem, but I think it also has to lay out why it is important that your kids eat less sugar and fat and exercise more. Obesity is unique in that it is both a health risk in and of itself and a visual indicator of what might be problems with diet or exercise habits. And in a visual medium like advertising (and especially billboards) I think there's a legitimate public health value in using images of overweight children to literally illustrate the problem.
About what Jen said, on finding another way to increase awareness about obesity. Here's my idea:
Talk to kids about health, WITHOUT singling out only "obese" children as an example of why to do so.
Have kids exercise, WITHOUT, singling out only "obese" children as an example of why to do so.
Teach acceptance of all people, no matter race, religion, OR SIZE.
This stupid infantile campaign, only serves to once again, make fat children social pariahs.
I never understood, how making fat kids feel like they are worse than s**t, is supposed to make them want to become more healthy. Everyone has heard the story, about the child who turned to food because food didn't make fun of them, and food didn't keep telling them how fat they were.
This campaign only is going to reinforce the idea that isolating children based on size alone, not any REAL health factors, will somehow urge them to be more healthy.
Rather than growing up hating themselves, because the message is that it's good for the school bully to pick on the fat kid. As long as they're eating healthily, and are thin. It's not bad enough being a fat kid anymore, now you have the teachers and students making them feel invisible and unwanted.
Frankly, if this childishness goes any further..I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't more fat kids attempting Columbines. Growing up being considered wrong, because of something you may not be able to do anything about, is surely a great way to cripple someone's mental health.
Imagine going to school everyday, and only being told eat right, exercise. You do that, you don't become thin, you keep being told the same thing. You keep being looked at as a problem child by the schools, and targeted by bullies. I tell you one thing, there will be a huge increase in paychecks for the psychoanaltyical drug companies in the future. There also will be more kids pushed to their limit, who will want to take it out on the thin kids. So if this was even about protecting the thin kids, the answer wouldn't be to oust the fat kids as being nothing unless they're thin.
It isn't about that, it's just about some hysterical notion, created by diet companies, doctors and drug companies who make money from putting Speed into a bottle, and calling it a diet pill. Parents loosing common sense, listening to the sensationalist views the media sells them. All at the cost of their children's ability to like themselves.
So Jen, do you still think that campaigns making freakshows of fat kids are still a good idea?
Like I said, I haven't actually seen the Boston ads, but I certainly don't think the ones we have here make "a freakshow" of fat kids. And it is targeted at both thin and fat kids and their parents, as is the website associated with the Boston campaign.
But I do think there has to be some mention of outcomes in any effective public health campaign. Which would you pay more attention to: an ad that said that washing your hands more frequently promotes better health, or one that spelled out that handwashing cuts down on transmission of communicable diseases, including serious ones like avian flu which can cause severe illness or death? Fat IS a real health factor, and while it is of course important to be sensitive to the social stigma associated with obesity, I think oversensitivity to that stigma runs the risk of compromising the effectiveness of the campaign. You have to strike a balance, although certainly there's going to be a wide range of opinions on where that fulcrum ought to be!
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)
Weetablog, I was wanting to say something out of sheer randomness. You know those Z-strap velcro shoes for kids? I wish they made those for adults. They're like velcro shoes but they don't look dorky. Although, I've seen some of those chunky platform sneakers with velcro that look cute.
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).
A number of people have mentioned now the need for this campaign to be aimed at all children, but the thing is, I'm pretty sure this is primarily meant to be an obesity prevention program. In any public health awareness campaign, the best use of your money is always going to be prevention, which is cheaper and easier than treatment. I really think the target here is parents whose kids are in danger of getting obese, either because they are slightly "chubby" now or because their eating and exercise habits are just not good. Frankly, I think kids with a serious weight problem are kind of an afterthought here.
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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