I knew that commercial was a bad influence!

[Drtooth]

You probably know of that annoying commercial where the thin woman is too afraid to eat cheesecake, and the slightly more attractive thin woman comes in and eats yogurt vaguely flavored like cheesecake and apparently lost weight over it, while the thin woman obsesses about celery sticks and jogging in place..

Yeah... It's been banned . Specifically because it seems to encourage eating disorders. Can't say I blame them. The woman's one thought away from "Maybe if I eat the cheesecake, shove my finger down my throat and barf it up, I'll look better in a bikini."

I've long been targeting weightloss commercials. From Subway's highly insensitive slightly overweight people falling out of hammocks and breaking through the floor (you'd have to be WELL over a thousand pounds to break a wooden boardwalk) to the Special K "eat nothing but cereal and you'll lose weight" (yeah, because you cut out protein in your diet, and your body will wind up eating it's own muscle tissue). They either are vociferously insensitive, or get healthy quick schemes. Either way as someone who isn't bone thin and hasn't so much been struggling with their weight because it's more of a massacre it's the ONE thing I find highly offensive. I'm sure there are a lot of women on perpetual diets that barely even maintain that want to take that cheesecake and force it down that woman's craw.

 

[D'Snowth]

Yay.

Makes me happy to hear that, not to mention, I couldn't stand those Subway commercials where it was like they had two versions:

WOMAN: What does the combo meal come with?
CASHIER: Bloated feeling, fatigue, regret, remorse, loss of self-esteem, loss of boyfriend, a bigger waist...

*****

MAN: What does the combo meal come with?
CASHIER: Elastic-waist pants, airplane seatbelt extenders, bigger clothes, extra-strength deodorant, costly gym membership, a therapist to deal with it all...

Those aren't funny, those are just insulting... like, why don't we just all make fun of the emos, you know, the ones keep the heavy makeup industry alive, and continue to put money into the pockets of My Chemical Romance, and ruin the metal detectors at airports, and practicing more malpractice with self-mutilation than incompetent surgeons who get paid to do it, blah-blah-blah.

I still feel sorry for that poor Miss America contestant who was thrown out of the pageant for being "too fat" at a SIZE TWO!!! And there is more weight discrimination in this world today than there is racial discrimination; the whole thing has gotten so bad, I had to do a whole blog-like article on the matter because this has to stop!http://josephscarbrough.blogspot.com/2011/02/stop-discrimination-already.html

 

[Drtooth]

Those sound like THINSPIRATION to me. You know, the propaganda that anorexics push to say that what they're doing is okay. Yeah... just TRY to dump a woman if she gains weight. If you even manage to make it out alive, you'll wish you hadn't. With one line they did so many horrid things, setting women back 50 years, basically saying everyone with a couple pounds on them is worthless... it's not funny, it's disgusting, and exactly the tone of the bullies that used to beat them up for being fat when said bullies weren't exactly the best looking kids in class. How come those were only pulled because they wanted new ads? I bet if someone spoke with a racist Asian accent , there would have been death threats or something.

Subway can have FUNNY commercials. Heck, Jon Lovitz and Peter Griffin were spokesmen at one point. And they're anything but light. If they have to pull the Jared lost weight thing (which was bunk because he ate low fat turkey subs with nothing but vegetables on them) at LEAST be reasonable about it.

 

[D'Snowth]

Uh, I guess the ban hasn't gone into effect just yet, they JUST now showed that EXACT same specific commercial (yeah, the cheesecake) on ABC Family.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I've seen that commercial; I didn't think it was promoting eating disorders myself. I love Cheesecake but it is very unhealthy, lol. Yogurt is often a better choice. That's all I took away from the ad.

I'm just not sure I buy the idea that commercials or the media suddenly make someone have an eating disorder. I think a person would have to already have that kind of tendency.

 

[Drtooth]

Yes, but it also shows that someone who isn't even the least bit heavy (almost gangly, actually... a little cheesecake can do her some good) obsesses about her weight. Now, there's healthy questioning if that's a good idea to eat something like that, and obsessive obsession. She'd have to eat a LOT of cheesecake every single day for the rest of her life to be unhealthy.

Healthy options are important, sure, but if you don't indulge yourself once in a while, you might as well not even eat and just carry around an IV drip. Eating's a chore if you can't enjoy something once in a while.

Above all, if I was on a diet or had a healthy eating style, am I going to get the flavored yogurt version of something? No! If I want yogurt, I want yogurt that tastes like yogurt! I mean, fruit on the bottom stuff can be just as, if not more enjoyable than almost sorta cheesecake like.

I don't see why adults can't have healthy options PSA's right next to Burger King ads... but I also don't see why they have to villify fat people so harshly to sell crappy artificially sweetened puddings and nitrate filled microwaved hogies. I mean, yeah, we're a society that watches Biggest Loser ironically, eating like a pig without gaining weight laughing at all the ugly huge people wrestling and mud and crying.... but do we have to be? At least make the people falling off hammocks and breaking the sidewalk a little heavier than 30 pounds over.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Oh yeah I agree with you about other commercials being cruel to overweight people. I just didn't think this particular commercial was among those. That's all.

She'd have to eat a LOT of cheesecake every single day for the rest of her life to be unhealthy.

Well I do people like that and they did end up being very unhealthy. It is something that needs to be addressed.

 

[Drtooth]

I can dig the tone of that Nutrigrain bar ad where they show someone eating normally with a split screen of them making healthier options. Why can't more of these commercials coax rather than scare?

To me, it isn't so much about choosing yogurt that barely tastes like cheesecake in the ad so much as the rambling of "Maybe if I eat celery sticks and job in place it will balance it out." There's just something... unsettling about it. It's like she's one tangent away from saying "Maybe if I puke it all up..."

 

[CensoredAlso]

To me, it isn't so much about choosing yogurt that barely tastes like cheesecake in the ad so much as the rambling of "Maybe if I eat celery sticks and job in place it will balance it out." There's just something... unsettling about it. It's like she's one tangent away from saying "Maybe if I puke it all up..."

Yeah I do get what you're saying. I have met people who talk like that and they worry me, heh. Again though, I think you'd already have to be verging on eating disorder to let a commercial like that influence you.

 

[D'Snowth]

but I also don't see why they have to villify fat people so harshly to sell crappy artificially sweetened puddings and nitrate filled microwaved hogies. I mean, yeah, we're a society that watches Biggest Loser ironically, eating like a pig without gaining weight laughing at all the ugly huge people wrestling and mud and crying.... but do we have to be?

Yes, apparently, and unfortunately, we have to be.

And again, that big to-do with that Miss AmeriUSAca contestant being dropped from the pageant for being "too fat" is PROOF that you LITERALLY HAVE to be a size ZERO in order to be accepted by society today; we've seen it happen over the years: the numbers get steadily smaller and smaller of what's considered acceptable. Remember here a couple of years ago when Jessica Simpson put on a FEW pounds? And she actually looked like a NORMAL woman instead of a generic Hollywood stick figure? And people were all, "Eww! Look at her! She's SOOOOOO fat now!", "Ugh, she's such a fatty!", "What the Elmo has she been eating?!" And now the same thing's going on with Britney Spears in her signature skimpy outfits and everyone's like, "Geez Brit, do something about that paunch, will ya?!"

I still hate how society mangled up the term "curvy", and it took it COMPLETELY out of context, so now, if you see someone who has a genuinely nice figure/shape (remember folks, women are SUPPOSED to have hips and such), you can no longer say they have really nice curves, because now, you're essentially saying they're fat, but in a polite/politically correct way.