This ad drives me crazy

So this is it guys. Here's my first rant. I just wanted your thoughts and opinions about an ad our regional government (Belgium) produced.

This ad is supposed to promote healthy food and nutrition habits. It was paid with public money (60.000 euros) of course which is the part that makes me really sick.

Here's the context

In the late sixties two young men are working in a student appartment. One (unnamed) eats an apple, is skinny, smart and not too bad looking. The other guy, Jean Claude, is fat, eats some greasy crap, looks like an unattractive nerd who never showers.

Narrator says "Aaaah if Jean Claude (the fattie) had eaten healthier he would have reinvented microcomputing and would have become a billionaire. And above all he would have got a chick!" Closure screen "An initiative from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation" (I translated)

One more detail: the Socialist Minister of Health and Audiovisual wrote the script!



THE UNDERLYING MESSAGES I DECRYPT AND DISLIKE

° Fat people eat all greasy food and that's why they're fat
° Fat people can't really have genius ideas as they feed themselves so badly
° Fat people can't get a good job
° Fat people can't get girls!

° Making money is a top priority and a standard of living. Enjoying a dollar rain with some chinese pal and living on an island with a beach also. (Socialist minister remember!!!WTH?!)

° Skinny people don't mix with fatties
° Skinny people are smart because they eat healthy

° Women love money and skinny people

And the most horrible to me

° Being normal is being skinny

My personal opinion: it's scandalous and really symptomatic of the way society always needs to divide people into different branches and castes. How is this crap clip supposed to help large people jumping in new food habits? If I were obese I'd feel way worse and my self-confidence level would severely drop. Especially when you know this clip is aimed at 16-25 y/o. This age bracket is way more sensitive than any other. Well, I think skinny people will find it really funny. But how's this gonna help not making fun of fat people in schools and public places and help them finding the confidence to change their habits?

The minister said it was supposed to be a humourous ad.

What are your thoughts? Do you like her sense of humour? Or didn't she eat enough apples?



Peace

that was unsettling, hmm I wonder who the skinny guy is supposed to be... And I eat greasy foods all the time but I stay skinny, and I know overweight guy at my school who get girls all the time.

While the intentions are good (to get people to eat healthier), the message is bad.

You're right, OP. It pretty much slams overweight people and lumps them all together as brainless, unhealthy idiots.

Personally, I know many overweight people who eat very healthy and exercise daily. Their weight issues are directly related to problems with their thyroid, complications from diabetes, or even side effects of long-term medication (like prednisone). These people aren't overweight because their lazy slobs who love McDonalds....and its unfair to imply otherwise.

We all know folks who could stand to lose weight, I'm sure. I know I could stand to lose a few pounds myself (although as you near forty that gets more and more difficult). But this ad is insulting, and more apt to cause further division in an already divided society.

Originally posted by FenderWolf
that was unsettling, hmm I wonder who the skinny guy is supposed to be... And I eat greasy foods all the time but I stay skinny, and I know overweight guy at my school who get girls all the time.

Wait until you turn 30. YOU will NOT be able to eat anything you want and stay skinny. I promise.

reply to post by smyleegrl


Couldn't agree more. What amazes me is how can an allegedly qualified minister write this down.
And how no one told her "Wait, maybe this will hurt a few people?"

Ironically she declared a week later on a totally different topic (immigration) that she and her party were deeply attached to uniting values and didn't want to comment dividing statements of another party.

How hypocritical is that..!

Originally posted by kellynap43

Originally posted by FenderWolf
that was unsettling, hmm I wonder who the skinny guy is supposed to be... And I eat greasy foods all the time but I stay skinny, and I know overweight guy at my school who get girls all the time.

Wait until you turn 30. YOU will NOT be able to eat anything you want and stay skinny. I promise.

That's a blanket statement and it isn't true. People said that to me my whole life and as I have passed the so called point of no return, I still can eat anything I want and not put on weight. Which is actually frustrating, because I would like to put on weight, but it's difficult for an ectomorph.

Come on, we all know being fat is genetic. Other than that, most fat people are just big boned.

At least that is what Eric Cartman says on South Park.

reply to post by CityFarmer

Nothing more than propaganda/conditioning. I myself am probably underweight but yet mostly eat crap and so called greasy food.
The genes play a bigger part than what you actually eat. If I eat so called healthy food then I wont even feel satisfied for very long. I think main part here is how your body metabolites the food.

I also generally just eat one or two meal a day instead of small meals spread throughout the day. This is also something that the so called "expert" claim will make me fat.
It is also funny how vegetarians/vegans are often fat as well.

Your weight should be calculated using your age, height and sex.

However there are people now a days assume that its okay to be a bit bigger and its normal because general population(at least western) are "bigger" than their avg weight should.

At one point being "chubby" suppose to mean healthy but that because that fat is a different type of fat not trans or cholesterol.

Skinny people can have cholesterol too.

Well, being fat is not normal and never has been and possibly never will be.

But the real reason people hate fat people because if you look at much of the wealthy, in history the wealthy who never cared anything for the poor. That hostility has carried over into the modern age, but the reasons are only slightly different.

For example, King George was overweight, as were most dandys at the time.

And of course there's the song Yankee Doodle. It is not the patriotic song people make it out to be, but it is a song that is highly critical of wealthy people, who were called "Dandy" in the heyday.

So now you know.

reply to post by boncho

I agree - I was at my healthiest between 29 and 34 - and my present condition has nothing to do with age considering my diagnosis came when I was 29. For 5 years I managed to keep it at bay with a good diet and lots of excersize until it became too painful to excersize. I still eat right, I just can't maintain a low weight because I'm generally inactive now.

Hasn't hurt my dating in the least
Other things have but not my weight.

Also, my mother is vibrant and slender at the age of 60, and has osteoporosis and is very active - so ... yeah not thinking we're special here in any way - just exemplifying the difference between reality and "old wive's tales"


I also think stereotyping people based on their appearance is shallow and gross. I would not date any "gorgeous" or "skinny" person who does that. I would rather find myself with a man who's 300lbs who has respect for others, with an open mind to ideas, and who will do whatever I tell him to do!! (always a catch)