Posts Tagged ‘big brother’

The Politics of Obesity

March 3rd, 2009

For the past 50+ years, health experts around the world have been telling us what to eat and how to move in order to be lean, fit and healthy.

And during that period of time,

Chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, have become the leading cause of mortality in the world, representing 60% of all deaths”.

And what is the cause of this chronic disease explosion?

The World Health Organization has identified the major risk factors for chronic disease as:

  • an unhealthy diet,
  • insufficient physical inactivity,
  • and tobacco use.

cigarette-warningAnd we all know what they did to reduce the use of tobacco.

Anti-smoking ad campaigns and government legislation caused millions of smokers to butt out.

In Canada, cigarette manufacturers were forced by the government to put these labels on their packaging.

If you smoke, you’re going to get lung cancer, develop a mouth disease, become impotent, kill your unborn baby and/or have a stroke.

Seriously, with that heavy a guilt trip, I find it hard to believe that there are any smokers left for the experts to scare.

And, for the experts, that’s a big problem.

If no one is smoking, how are we going to get that big government grant money to save the people from their own “bad habits”?

<thinking>

idea-light-bulb

Eureka!!!

I’ve got it….we just replace the anti-smoking programs with anti-obesity programs.

  • First, we need to get people scared. Really scared. Scared of being fat. Scared of their children being fat.

Let’s do that with lots and lots of newspaper and magazine articles about the obesity epidemic.

Current generation of kids to live shorter lives than parents

  • And then, to avoid the general population from stepping in and solving their own problems, we need to step in and tell the people that we’re on top of things and that they shouldn’t worry.

British government targets obesity

‘The most significant public and personal health challenge,’ minister says

We also need to bring together all of the appropriate gov’t and non-gov’t organizations and have high level discussions and think-tanks and create some best practices and a bunch of other buzz words.

And we will bring them all together as some sort of anti-obesity, pro-health super-alliance.

alliance-for-a-healthier-generation

  • And then come the regulations and the taxes.

New York’s Obesity Tax

Fast Food Menu Legislation

The Politics of Obesity

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But, maybe there’s a better way.

Maybe there’s a way to bypass all of the experts.

Maybe there’s a way we can all help each other…without going farther into debt and without having higher taxes and without straining under additional governmental rules and regulations.

Maybe.

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Big Brother v.s. Childhood Obesity

January 27th, 2009
original big brother poster available at tomgpalmer.com

original big brother poster available at tomgpalmer.com

Yesterday in Quebec, Saputo Inc, makers of Vachon snack cakes, pled guilty to 22 charges under a provincial law that prohibits advertising at children under the age of 13.

The company was fined $44,000 for a 2007 marketing campaign that involved distributing Igor cakes and merchandise in daycare centers.

So, what exactly did Saputo/Vachon/Igor do wrong?

igor-vachon-cakeIn 1997, they contracted  P2P Proximité Marketing to promote Igor and his tasty cakes.

And how did they promote these taste treat sensations?

  • They designed a cartoon mascot to represent the product. Nothing new here…does anyone remember Count Chocula, Toucan Sam, the Lucky Charms leprechaun, etc…

[youtube=http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=1cEOKS5-DcQ]

They also created a promotional package that included:

  • A Dance Igor CD
  • An Igor story booklet promoting good nutrition and physical activity
  • Igor stickers
  • 2 Igor cakes, and
  • A bunch of Igor coupons

And then they distributed these Igor promo packages to DAY CARE centers all across Quebec.

Provincially funded day care centers.

They also gave 20 day care participants a group outing of their choice worth $3000.

igor-vachon-saputoAnd they weren’t done yet.

In their attempt to encourage physical activity and healthy eating amongst their potential customers, they created:

  • a website (taken down post verdict),
  • a poster highlighting Igor’s b-boy dance moves, and
  • a dance video designed to help the little kiddies burn off all of that sugar from their post nap-time Igor cake binge.

[youtube=http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=XjFaYWsdNg8]

And  just to put the proverbial icing on the cake, the day-cares had also been told that this program would improve the children’s fitness as they would learn to do the Igor dance.

But this isn’t too surprising when you consider that “the cakes themselves, which were shaped like a gorilla and had strawberry, chocolate or vanilla filling, were billed by the company as “a delicious and nutritious snack” when combined with fruit and milk”.

So, how did this end up in the court room?

Soon after the marketing campaign was launched, Suzie Pellerin, director of an anti-obesity group called Coalition Poids, joined with the Union des consommateurs to file the complaint against Saputo.

After yesterday’s decision, Ms. Pellerin was quoted as saying; “This is a victory for children, considering the impact of junk food on child health.”

Ms. Pellerin said she hopes the charges against Saputo will send a message to other companies. “Using children to sell products goes against the law,” she said. “Since we cannot act on the content of food offered to children, we can at least reduce their exposure to this advertising.”

Her group was also instrumental in prompting the charges against McDonald’s, Burger King and General Mills, expected to go to court this year.

McDonald’s is facing nine charges related to its sponsorship of a series of children’s movies broadcast on Tele-Quebec during the Christmas holidays.

General Mills faces one charge for its Lucky Charms web site, where children can play games featuring Lucky the Leprechaun.

Burger King faces 11 charges stemming from the distribution of toys with their kids’ meals.

Regarding the Burger King complaint, Ms Pellerin said that, “these collectible toys are a form of advertising that encourages children to increase their visits to Burger King restaurants and demand the meal needed to obtain these toys,” the Coalition Poids stated when its complaint was filed in December, 2007.

Okay, hold the phone for just one minute.

We’re talking about little kids here, right?

Little kids demanding junk food and toys.

This is supposed to be surprising? That kids like junk food and crappy fast food restaurant toys???

And where are their parents?

I would have assumed that it’s the parents who actually purchase the junk food.

Are we supposed to believe that these kids are stealing their parent’s SUV, driving down to Burger King and demanding their kiddie meal toys from the pimply faced drive-thru kid?

And how are those kids planning on paying for that kiddie meal?

They don’t have jobs.

You don’t think that they would resort to violence do you?

lord-of-the-fliesIt sounds just like Lord of the Flies.

Except that, instead of a bunch of half-starved savages, Igor and the Saputo gang have created a bunch of overweight, sugar addicted 5 year olds running around holding up fast food restaurants for their kiddie meal toys.

What is this world coming to???

The next thing that you’re going to tell me is that the people who launched this lawsuit aren’t doing this out of the goodness of their hearts and the righteousness of their cause.

That they are in the business of going after bad guys who sell junk food, alcohol and cigarettes.

That they stand to get promotions and increased government funding because of their highly publicized win against Saputo/Vachon.

Damn it!!!

Now I don’t know who to cheer for.

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original National Post article

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Hollywood to Declare War on Obesity

August 17th, 2008

By 2030, over 86% of Americans will be OBESE.

And who’s to blame? 

HOLLYWOOD

That’s right, I said it.

Hollywood.

And you thought that they were already doing their part to keep America trim by encouraging all of America’s young women to develop eating disorders in order to look like Angelina Jolie or Keira Knightley.

Well, according to weight-loss expert Dr. Martin Schiff, “Hollywood must share the blame for the obesity epidemic. Every day we see examples of overeating, gorging, food play and general disregard for health in movies and TV shows. No wonder millions of people are overweight.”

WHAT???

Seriously doc, you’re kidding…right?

Nope. He goes on.

“Just as a cigarette hanging from the lips of a “cool” actor can encourage smoking, scenes of gluttony and indiscriminate eating promote obesity in children, according to the good doctor.

He now wants the film industry to introduce a special “O for Obesity” rating so that parents can judge whether a film is suitable.

He also suggests an SE (Suggestive Eating) designation for movies that use fast-food companies in their marketing campaigns.

And this is where he may get his way.

Here’s why.

Last month, the FTC issued a report showing that the nation’s largest food and drink companies, including the fast-food chains, spend about $1.6 billion a year marketing their “food” to America’s children.

While most of that money was spent on television commercials, the FTC says that about $200 million of it was spent on cross promotion.

Those are not real apples -

Those are not real apples

And it’s this cross promotion spending that has got U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin’s shorts in a knot.

Harkin has been complaining for years about children being enticed to make poor food choices. He questions why the same minds and money behind all this marketing can’t be turned to attracting kids to “healthy snacks, tasty cereals, fruits and vegetables.”

Probably because the fruit and vegetable producers don’t have the marketing budgets of the breakfast cereal, pop and snack food producers.

Shhhhh...Creative Genius at work

Shhhhh...Creative Genius at work

So what is Senator Harkin going to do?

Well….

  • In New York, the city’s health department passed and is enforcing a law requiring all chain restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus.
  • In Los Angeles, city council has banned the opening of any new fast food restaurants for the next year.
  • San Jose, California is considering a similar moratorium.
  • Across the pond, the Dutch are debating the merits of a nation wide fat-food restaurant ban.

So really, is it that big a stretch to think that some combination of government and public pressure may push Hollywood into slapping a couple of new rating categories on the next Hollywood blockbuster.

I mean, come on. The last thing we want is for poor old Angelina Jolie to get any fatter than she already is.

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Corporate Workplace Fitness – Has your desk been replaced by a treadmill?

May 27th, 2008

More and more employers are instituting voluntary health / fitness programs for their employees in an attempt to reduce rising insurance costs.

In the U.S., the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) allows employers to adjust benefits and insurance premiums based on whether their employees have met the standards of a corporate wellness program. The new rules apply to group health plans and went into effect last July.

While the new rules prohibit discrimination, they do allow employers to offer rewards to nonsmokers, employees with a LDL cholesterol level under 200 or a BMI below 25.

Here is where it gets a little bit 1984.

While employers can’t tell an obese employee to lose weight or a smoker to quit, they can require the heavy employee to participate in nutrition classes and the smoker to track their smoking habits.

Usually these programs are administered and monitored by a third party company. This company’s responsibilities would include assessing the health risk of the employees, helping them set goals, providing the wellness services and monitoring their efforts/results.

They are also the judge of whether or not the employee achieved their wellness goals. If the employee met their particular goals, they would receive their wellness incentive (usually a reduction in their insurance contribution). If they didn’t, there would be a financial penalty.

So what do you think?

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

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Newsflash! – Junk food advertising is misleading!!!

April 18th, 2008

The BBC has reported that 83% of U.K. consumers “believed irresponsible marketing was making it harder to encourage children to eat well”.

The survey was conducted by Which?, the U.K.’s largest independent consumer organization.

The survey also found that “most of the 2,000 questioned want the government to do more to control the marketing of unhealthy food to children”.

Currently, the Brits have banned television commercials promoting junk food programmes aimed at children under 16.

Supporters of this survey are now calling for complete ban on junk food advertising on ALL programmes aired before 9 p.m. Additionally, they are requesting the government impose rules addressing junk food advertising on the internet and on packaging.

The ‘icing on the cake’ argument was offered by Clare Corbett, a food campaigner at Which?.

Corbett said “With childhood obesity and diet-related health problems on the increase, the government must take serious action and soon.”

To summarize:

  • Junk food is bad
  • Advertisers brainwash children into wanting junk food
  • Children pester their parents
  • Parents feed their children junk food
  • Children get fat eating junk food while watching television ads about junk food
  • The U.K.’s largest consumer protection group asks parents if the government should be doing more to keep their children safe from obesity
  • Parents overwhelmingly agree, demanding that the government solve childhood obesity by removing the offending advertisements.
  • Advertisers produce another survey indicating that “76% of UK adults believe that introducing a 9pm watershed on food advertising would not reduce the level of childhood obesity”.
  • The government is left to decide if banning all junk food ads on t.v. before 9 p.m. will win them the next election.

Your daily dose of reality

  • Junk food is bad
  • We are genetically disposed to prefer sweet, salty, greasy, calorie dense foods. We crave these things as a mechanism of survival. Genetics. Millions of years.
  • Advertisers know this. Food manufacturers know this. They sell us what we want. If we don’t want it, we won’t buy it. If we don’t buy it, they won’t sell it.
  • Every parent knows that feeding your children junk food while sitting them in front of the t.v. is guaranteed to make them fat.

What to do, what to do

  • Parents set the example for their children.
  • Stop buying junk food. Not just for your children, you too.
  • Stop watching t.v. Get outside and exercise. If it’s too cold, read a book.
  • Stop expecting the government to do everything for you.

The rant endeth.

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