PSA equates fast food with shooting heroin

This Australian anti-obesity spot from Precinct Studios, equating junk food with another type of addictive junk, must be the creepiest PSA of its kind ever made. Mama sits at a table and calmly heats up a spoon, readies a syringe and ties off junior's arm. The youngster colors with his crayons and seems obliviously spaced out, so he's probably scored before. At the end, they chow down on burgers. Given what's in some fast food, I'd take my chances with the heroin. It's slimming!

Filed under Australia, Food and drink, Gianatasio, Health, Obesity, Precinct Studios
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Gym ad's recycled fatties joke offends again

People in England (horizontally challenged and not) are voicing their displeasure with the ad above, for the Cadbury House health club, urging people to lose weight—or risk looking appetizing to hungry aliens when the invasion finally happens. Words like offensive, patronizing, insensitive and tacky are being trotted out. You could also include unoriginal. The ad is almost an exact replica—in image and copy—of the billboard below, done by Grey in San Francisco for 24 Hour Fitness way back in 1999. It didn't go over well then, either. After people protested, Grey creative director Alan Randolph told Adweek at the time: "We certainly didn't mean to offend anyone. I mean, I'm no physical specimen either." This time, it's Cadbury House's Jason Eaton who's urging people to lighten up—in more ways than one. "The alien campaign has been developed as a tongue-in-cheek look at the fact that people, generally, over the Christmas period do put on a little weight. We do not intend to cause any offense to anyone."

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Controversy, Europe, Gyms, Nudd, Obesity
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NYC unveils even more repulsive anti-fat ad

New York City's health department grossed people out this summer with anti-obesity ads on the subway showing globs of human fat being poured from a soda bottle. Now, they've managed to one-up themselves with a video version. Dr. Thomas Farley, the city's health commissioner, tells Gothamist: "This video is playful, but its message is serious." Playful is possibly the last adjective I would have come up with. Via AgencySpy.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Filed under Health, Nudd, Obesity, PSAs
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Stop drinking that human fat, NYC ads urge

New York City's health department is set to wage war on sugary drinks (and the appetites of subway riders) with new MTA ads that show globs of human fat being poured from a soda bottle. "Don't drink yourself fat," says the copy in the ad above. "Cut back on soda and other sugary beverages. Go with water, seltzer or low-fat milk instead." The ads, offering "a stark reminder of how these products can lead to obesity and related health problems," according to the city, will put people off their lunch (healthy or not) in 1,500 subway cars over a three-month run. And they pulled out all the stops to make the ads as disgusting as possible. "We had to make sure it looked like real human fat," one official tells The New York Times. "We did want those little blood vessels and things like that."

—Posted by Tim Nudd

See also:
NYC laundromats think you’re just too fat

Filed under Nudd, Obesity, PSAs
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Good lord, Barbie is really letting herself go

"Keep obesity away from your child" is the tagline of a new campaign by Texas-based Hispanic shop LatinWorks for an organization called Active Life Movement. Instead of fat kids, the ads show fat toys: a superhero, pirates and a Barbie-like doll. See the full ads here, here and here over at Ads of the World. Details like the Cake Crusader's dripping ice-cream cone and Big-Butt Barbie's empty takeout carton are fantastic. Still, if the toys are comfortable with themselves, isn't that the most important thing? The stout swashbucklers sure look happy -- or sated, at any rate. And the superhero, like Batman's Adam West bursting out of his tights in the '60s, would probably say the mass around his middle is muscle. (What a joker.) You know, maybe that doll's supposed to be Jessica Simpson.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Filed under Active Life Movement, Gianatasio, LatinWorks, Obesity, PSAs
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