Health

Shock tactics in anti-obesity drive

by LotusFlower | November 9, 2008 at 11:14 pm

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With fatness seen as a vanity problem rather than a health problem new research shows many people are not picking up the message that energy-dense foods such as burgers, chips, cakes and other fatty and sweet foods are unhealthy.

The research however did find that images of organs with fat built up around them were found disgusting by many and so the UK government is launching a series of adverts showing diseased and fat covered organs in order to shock fat people thinner.

Some believe that this could be counterproductive if the adverts separate the results of bad diet from resulting illness. Shock adverts have not been shown to work as well as legislation for smoke free public spaces when it comes to smoking for instance although the government cites shock tobacco adverts as a success and is modeling this campaign on it.

Rather than legislate against big corporate food companies and supermarkets the government is asking some big players to come on board and introduce schemes such as cheaper fruit and vegetables to encourage the buying of them over unhealthy food.

The government hope that the campaign will lead to healthier eating, less obesity and a fall in diabetes, cancer, heart disease and other illnesses.

Hard-hitting adverts showing the danger of fat gathering around people’s internal organs will be used in a £275m government anti-obesity campaign.

Research by the Department of Health has found that the public perceives obesity to be a vanity problem and does not regard cakes, biscuits, burgers, chips and crisps as unhealthy. The research did, however, find that people were disgusted by the idea of fat building up around their organs.

The Change4Life campaign, to begin tomorrow with the backing of junk food companies, will use this insight in its adverts to show the public that body fat is putting it at risk of serious illness including heart disease and diabetes.

The message will be reminiscent of the shocking antismoking adverts from the British Heart Foundation showing how cigarettes clog up the arteries. More recently, adverts have shown the internal damage that can be caused in car crashes to those not wearing seatbelts.

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generaldecay

at 07:00 on November 10th, 2008

I'm all for raising awareness, but I always worry that campaigns such as this one demonise the obese/ overweight, and fail to further understanding of weight issues. That is, that such campaigns over-simplify the issue and reduce it to a case of 'you're overweight, eat fruit and veg, you'll be fine', which is often not the reality at all.

Good post, Lotus!