Posts Tagged ‘public health campaigns’

Distinguishing Empowerment, Empathy, and Pity

May 12, 2021 — Two days into a week of intense meetings about obesity science and policy at #ECO2021 and #COS7, one thing is hard to miss. The quality of research and analysis is strong. But people living with obesity are front and center. In fact, we see strong confident voices for persons living with obesity. Not sad victims. […]

Is It Possible to Separate Obesity from Body Image?

April 29, 2021 — One reason that obesity can be such a difficult topic is because people link it to appearance. Thus we live in a culture where people presume they can diagnose a person’s health based on body image. Looking healthy becomes a surrogate for being healthy. People do very unhealthy things to reach for a healthy appearance. […]

Will the COVID-Obesity Intersection Bring Change?

April 15, 2021 — About a year ago, Boris Johnson had an epiphany. He came uncomfortably close to death because of COVID-19. Obesity was the reason it was so bad for him, he decided. “I was too fat,” he said. So he launched the Better Health campaign to slim down the UK. But the UK is not alone in […]

Obesity Kills! Hype and Bullying Don’t Help, Either

February 12, 2021 — Once again, we see the impulse rise to catastrophize obesity. A new study in BMC Public Health offers up a comparison of deaths due to smoking and adiposity. So naturally, this sparks splashy headlines. Obesity kills more than smoking! Scary stuff. But not terribly helpful. Because the subtext of this sort of hype is finger […]

Calling for a Media Shift on Obesity in Australia

November 27, 2020 — It’s time for a shift in media narratives about obesity in Western Australia. So says the Health Consumers Council of Western Australia, in concert with the government there. The HCC is a nonprofit voice of the health consumer. It works across many health issues to ensure people have a say in health policy. HCC listened […]

“You Can’t Go Eating Burgers and Fries All the Time”

November 25, 2020 — Implicit bias about obesity is a funny thing. In the middle of a conversation about it, someone tells us, “Sure, it’s biological. But you can’t just go eating burgers and fries all the time.” Invite people to share their thoughts about obesity and you get images of a mom gorging herself on a ridiculous burger. […]

Childhood Obesity Campaigns: All Harm, No Benefit

November 20, 2020 — We confess to being fed up with campaigns right now. But three articles in JAMA Pediatrics shine an especially harsh light on childhood obesity campaigns in two forms. One is the PSA approach exhorting families to beware of childhood obesity. The other is the practice of weighing and measuring kids in school and sending BMI […]

Let’s Move! Begets Let’s Do This! – E-Z Weight Loss

August 16, 2020 — Who knew that Boris Johnson was a secret fan of Michelle Obama? If imitation is sincere flattery, we see some flattery of her in the new Better Health campaign coming from the NHS. Let’s Move! has become Let’s Do This! So the UK is on a crash course of self-directed weight loss, with a little […]

Let Me Explain Weight Stigma

July 16, 2019 — Two weeks ago, Cancer Research UK blanketed the United Kingdom with billboards to proclaim that having obesity is like smoking. We and more than 12,000 petitioners have voiced strong concern that this misguided campaign will serve only to promote weight stigma, not health. Because CRUK has thus far not granted that promoting stigma might be […]

No, Cancer Research UK, Obesity Is Not Like Smoking

July 5, 2019 — Presumably, the folks at Cancer Research UK (CRUK) knows something about cancer. Sadly, though, they’re proving that they don’t understand obesity. They’re spending a bundle of money to promote a false meme that equates obesity with smoking. It’s a clever lie, but it’s still a lie. Smoking is a behavior. Obesity is a condition. They […]