False advertising and the promotion of fat hatred, gummint division

[firecat]

In New York City, the health department made a scare-mongering ad saying that diabetes can lead to amputations. The ad includes a photograph of a fat man who appears to have an amputated leg; crutches are leaning on the wall behind him.

In the original stock photo, a man with two legs is sitting on a stool (and there are no crutches). The "amputation" was created by Photoshop.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/nyregion/in-health-dept-ad-photoshop-not-diabetes-took-leg.html

I don't care that much about the Photoshop thing, but what bugs me about the ad is that it encourages hatred of fat people. The ad purportedly communicates "If you consume bigger portions of sweetened soda, you'll get fat, and then you'll get diabetes, and then you might need an amputation." But it also communicates "If you see a fat amputee, you can assume that they got that way from drinking too much soda."

I'd like to take the 'shopped photo and make the guy's clothing look camo and change the text to say "The US is engaging in more wars. This can lead to amputations."

Comments

[eggcrack]

How "nice".

I don't seem to be able to open the article again, but I think the ad cropped the man's face out of sight too. Maybe there's nothing weird about that, but it's something that rubs me the wrong way.

[firecat]

They did. And me too. This is a great article about "headless fatty" photos. Once you read it, you'll never be able to unsee them.

http://www.charlottecooper.net/docs/fat/headless_fatties.htm

[eggcrack]

That was so depressing to read. Never unsee them indeed.