Original Ad
This campaign by the state of Georgia stirred controversy when it used the images of children to fight childhood obesity. This image is one of several that were featured in a $50 million five-year print and television advertising campaign by the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. The commercials were punctuated by a shocking message: “Being fat takes the fun out of being a kid.”
Tamika’s ad whose image is featured in this blog was narrated by her mother who claimed that she did not notice that her child was eating any differently from the rest of the family. She said that her daughter ate child food just like any other kid and when she was informed that Tamika had type two diabetes, she did not think that they made her sick.
Tamika’s mother not only appears to be oblivious of the fact that the ad could make her child feel ostracized but also the fact that her child’s body weight could lead to adverse health impacts. She states in the ad that “I just always thought she was thick like her mama.”
With more than one million obese children, the state of Georgia must have thought that the ad was a good approach to stopping childhood obesity. The Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and the parents involved could have had good intentions to drive corrective action. However, this campaign ridicules children for their physical appearance and could have adverse impacts on their self-esteem. An individual’s body image plays a major role in how they feel about themselves. Therefore, negative statements towards a person’s weight could result in problems such as anxiety eating disorders and mood disorders.
Jammed Version
I changed this ad because I felt that the caption “My fat may be funny to you but it’s killing me” is an ineffective way to campaign against childhood obesity. To begin with, I do not think that any reasonable person would find someone else’s body size funny. However, this is not to say that people do not ridicule others for their weight. Children particularly are known to make fun of their friends and schoolmates, and using a slogan like “my fat may be funny to you” could encourage them to taunt each other.
Having a bigger body that the rest of the people especially in school can be excruciating because one can have very few to no friends. No one wants to be friends with “fat kid” and even those who do may try to avoid the company of the child because they too could suffer abuse and discrimination simply by associating with them.
This ad demonstrates how pervasive fat shaming has become in society in form of campaigns that propagate fat stigma. Such campaigns not only have negative consequences for the psychological well-being of obese individuals but are ineffective in improving their physical health. I believe that most overweight people are fully aware of their condition and that shaming them further does not help but may encourage them to engage in harmful behavior.
Instead of using such images, campaigns should motivate individuals to make positive changes in their diets and exercise habits by highlighting the positive impacts of eating low-fat diets and engaging in more physical activities.
Sources
Stampler, L. (2012). This Shocking Anti-Childhood Obesity Campaign is stirring national Controversy. Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/this-shocking-anti-childhood-obesity-campaign-is-stirring-national-controversy-2012-1
Collins, L. (2018). Body shaming can create lifelong problems, but who’s doing it may surprise you. Desert news, https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900016552/body-shaming-can-create-lifelong-problems-but-whos-doing-it-may-surprise-you.html