(Image Source: ABC News)

BY LAUREN ZIMA

New ads intended to fight childhood obesity in Georgia are causing controversy. Here are some, from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

“Playing video games is what I like to do by myself. I don’t have to be around other kids. All the want to do is pick on me.”
[Being fat takes the fun out of being a kid.]
[Stop sugarcoating it, Georgia.]
“Mom, why am I fat?”
[75% of Georgia parents with overweight kids don’t recognize the problem.]

KSTP reports on the backlash for the in-your-face ads.

“Running in Georgia, where nearly 40 percent of children are obese or overweight. Some are even diagnosed with hypertension as young as first or second grade, but some experts say the ads send the wrong message.”
“I think it’s not only ineffective, it’s actually quite damaging. If kids feel bad about their bodies, they’re not going to take good care of them.”

A writer for the Boston Globe agrees, arguing children don’t choose to become obese, and adding she fears overweight kids will be made fun of even more because of the ads.

“I just keep imagining thin kids passing by the billboards on the way to school and using them as another excuse to tease the chubby kid sitting next to them. ‘Hey, aren’t you that girl in the ad? Nah, you’re much fatter!’”

The Washington Post says stigmatizing could go either way, pointing out there isn’t a lot of research backing up whether these ads will be affective.

“There’s not much academic research on what kind of advertising works in terms of combating childhood obesity … The risk here is increasing stigma against overweight children. … These ads could probably cut either way: Making both kids and their peers more conscious of what being overweight looks like.”

According to The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Children’s Healthcare took this approach after finding 50 percent of those surveyed didn’t see childhood obesity as a problem, and 75 percent of parents with overweight kids didn’t think their children had weight issues.

A senior vice president of the group says:

“‘We felt like we needed a very arresting, abrupt campaign that said: ‘Hey, Georgia! Wake up.’”

The campaign, called Strong4Life, is planned as a $50 million project to be pushed over the next five years.