Generation XXL
I used to see this ad in San Francisco, when driving onto the onramp of the Bay Bridge. It’s an ad for Kaiser Permanente, which is the same HMO that does the “thrive” commercials.
My main issue is that this ad portrays a young girl (of course it’s a girl) in a bathing suit who is maybe, what, six years old? And what she is ostensibly saying is that she won’t “be part of generation XXL”; i.e., she doesn’t want to be fat. Healthy children? That I can get behind. But the slogan being in the voice of the child, already worrying about being fat, is what concerns me. Do we really need to raise the statistics on children with eating disorders?
One six-year-old girl presented to a paediatrician with food avoidance, excessive exercising and fear of weight gain but had not been diagnosed with anorexia because she was not severely underweight.
I’m sure this ad is aimed not at children, but at their parents. Still, the message it holds is disturbing to me. Take junk food out of schools, yes. Encourage exercise, yes. Teach kids to obsess over their body shape and size, oh hell no.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advertising, Advocacy, Fatism, Health, Kids, Media, Tidbit
I wouldn’t even say from that picture that she looks 6 years old! Her face looks younger than that, probably more like 4 years old, maybe even younger.
Scary scary stuff this is.
I could not have said it better myself.
I have 2 girls and raising them to have a healthy body image is a huge challenge when every other commercial on TV is for a diet pill.
Oh Hell, my kids could read fluently by six, this board is aimed as much at them directly as at parents.
My eight year old was worrying about thigh jiggle just yesterday; and my four year old has refused apples plus corn chips because that would make him fat.
This broke my heart. It’s like the anti “If you let me play” ad.
Neither ad really targets children but both would be quietly filed away and remembered by little eyes.
Given that the ad managed to make me feel bad about myself I can’t imagine what impact it woudl have on a young girl.
My youngest two are girls. The older of the two is becoming quite health conscious and aware of different foods and weight, etc. We focus on being strong and active and appreciating our amazing bodies for all the stuff they do. But it’s hard. I’ve cut way back on TV to avoid all the ads for many reasons, body image included (no TV on school days/nights) and I watch very closely what they watch on the weekends — mostly pre-screened movies. When they do see something questionable, I try to have an age-appropriate discussion with them about it to at least make them think. I’m worried about them growing up struggling with weight like I did and I also don’t want to make them neurotic about it and have my efforts backfire! :-(
AMEN!
The child is also just standing there. I’m peeved by “fitness” magazines that show muscle-less models in bikinis just standing there. Would it kill the media to show women and girls MOVING or doing something active?
That reminds me of a print ad for Subway I saw recently. It was a picture of a box of french fries, with the caption “Jumbo size is no way for a kid to go through life.” I don’t know if I’ve ever found an advertising campaign to be so repellent as their fat-shaming one, but certainly has succeeded in making me a non-customer.
KP also runs a television ad featuring a chubby (and adorable) little boy, maybe 7 or 8 years old, making a confession to the audience about how awful it is to be fat, walking around alone with chocolate stains on his mouth, and then sighing that he got that way because he hung out “with the wrong crowd.”
Wrong crowd? Meaning a leather-jacket wearing, motorcyle riding fat gang tempting him with cupcakes or something? Wow, way to link body weight with morality, KP!
I feel for parents today. How do you protect your kids from so many harmful messages?
I saw that ad butterfly, I thought it was cute! I liked it because it showed him, still chubby and adorable, but playing soft ball and running about, and it gave him the ironic persona of a middle aged guy talking about his wild youth: “the drinking was the worst” cut to him chugging soda. The image accompanying “wrong crowd” was him playing a video games while a teenager slept on the sofa behind him.
Those worried about this should contact Kaiser and perhaps also Linda Bacon (http://www.lindabacon.org/), nutrition professor and HAES advocate, who is apparently trying to work with them to get more HAES-friendly policies and programs. Kaiser recently withdrew an offensive anti-obesity billboard after complaints were raised. A clear coherent complaint might jsut get results.
They really are overdramatizing the eat healthy message, by associating them with real problems. I’m sorry, drinking soda is not the same as a chronic Alcohol addiction. Hanging out with someone who plays video games, is better than hanging out with a group of kids doing drugs.
The people who make these ads must have never delt with someone with a real addiction, let alone even watch an episode of Intervention I presume.
Not only does this set up children for eating disorders, it puts the real tragedy of drug and Alcohol addiction away from the spotlight. I don’t think someone with an Alcohol addicted friend or family member would think it’s cute, to associate a horrible disease like that with simply drinking soda.
How many children need to DIE before people realize the cost of making children afraid to eat.
Why can’t we take the focus off of being fat, and just put the focus on being active?
I was a fat kid, I’m a fat adult. But, as a kid we were always biking, swimming, playing, running, rollerskating etc.
By shaming fat kids, you’re only making it a) harder for the kids who are already fat, or are healthy just heavy *like that isn’t hard enough* b) putting scary pressure on developing minds and bodies and c) making the real culprit, fat. It’s not fat that should be the problem, it should be health.
One six-year-old girl presented to a paediatrician with food avoidance, excessive exercising and fear of weight gain but had not been diagnosed with anorexia because she was not severely underweight.
UNbelievable.
The denial. It buuuuuuuuuuuurns.
Like my daughter needs any help worrying about her weight! She does just fine being anxious on her own, thank you. Seven years old and she’s already worring about whether or not certain clothes make her look fat. And she’s a hyperpicky eater. A pox on comapnies that play on the insecurities of children.
I actually wrote this letter to the editor in The Oregonian, it was published:
November 28, 2007
Dear Editors,
I pass by a billboard every morning and every evening. There is a picture of a young girl and a phrase that says “I WILL NOT BE PART OF THE XXL GENERATION”. This message is cruel and hurtful. Once again, a very clear message to all girls and women of Portland. If you are overweight, then you are worthless. I would like to take this opportunity to exclaim, I am overweight. This is not the proudest exclamation. However, it is most certainly not the most important. I have a few other things to exclaim: I am a first generation college graduate with a BS in Psychology. I recently earned an MS in Special Education. I am married to a wonderful man, and he loves me not matter what. I have just begun a fantastic career, as a teacher for children with high emotional needs. These are just a few of my accomplishments as an overweight woman. Perhaps Kaiser’s message should be” “I WILL NOT BE PART OF THE: DROPOUT GENERATION, ALCOHOLICS GENERATION, DRUG USER GENERATION, SPOUSAL ABUSE GENERATION, WEIGHT OBSESSED GENERATION”
Sincerely,
Amy
How about teaching kids to not torture other kids about their appearance? And actually doing something about it if you catch them being mean?
I can’t count the number of times I would tell teachers I was being made fun of for being fat and they’d basically tell me to work it out myself. My mom said if that happened again I should start punching the kids. My brother took that advice, I never did. At least not until 8th grade when I shoved some girl over in gym class for making fun of me trying to jump shot.
Funny, just noticed that you had been using the same term “fatventure” as we had for our little fat losing contest (which, as of today, ended up being a fat gaining contest atleast personally).
We even had a fancy website for it: http://www.fatventure.com/ ;D