Joan Ball is a business professor at St. John’s University in New York and the author of Flirting with Faith: My Spiritual Journey from Atheism to a Faith-Filled Life.
Public health announcements: they make me vastly uneasy. And none more so than the new NYC anti-soda campaign, which actually just makes me vastly queasy:
Do we really need some in-your-face ad agency terrifying us with PSAs à la the text-messaging teenagers car crash video that was burning up the internet last week?
Personally, I think ads like these are sort of insulting to our intelligence. Does anyone honestly not know that soda is highly calorific by now?
“But Hillary,” you say. “Obesity is a national epidemic. And smoking is killing us by the millions. We need shrill shock advertising to drive that message home. We’re saving lives here, woman! What’s a little nausea compared to that?”
Hm. My gut reaction to this gut-twisting image is that I’m not keen on it – mostly because it seems like a manipulation of our baser emotions to get us to change our “bad” habits through shock and awe. I believe we ought to be resolving to make health changes from a more reasoned part of our brains – getting our whole selves on board, as it were, and it offends me when people try to “get” me to change my lifestyle using such base tactics. Maybe if they could show me some hard stats that proved these scare tactics were highly effective (and the jury is definitely still out on that) I’d have a change of heart.
What do you think? Are these ads doing a public service, or just turning the public’s stomach?
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posted September 1, 2009 at 9:08 pm
The ad might get someone to think about changing what they drink.
Is it effective? Yes and no. We are so bombarded with images these
days, our brains often just turn off what we don’t want to see.
We do have a obesity epidemic(if epidemic is the correct word) but
unless a person is personally affected, people don’t change unhealthy
habits because of ads or taxes. Look at the amount of people smoking
outside of buildings.
Ads that do their job are supposed to manipulate – gently.
posted September 2, 2009 at 10:30 am
Ads that create buzz create a conversation between Average Joes, who are typically too busy trying to earn a living to concern themselves with these issues.
Obesity is an epidemic, and here is a chance to get these same Average Joes to make an opinion, and hopefully do something about, this horrific problem in our society.
posted September 4, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Yes, I think this is necessary. It is the reality of the situation. People are so complacent with driving that they need to be reminded how violent and tragic a car accident is. They need to think about how they act when driving and about how many lives they are endangering.
People are so used to chugging liters of soda that they need to be reminded that all those extra calories are a major factor in the obesity epidemic in the US. The obesity epidemic that is shortening so many lives and making so many others lose quality of life.
These are serious issues. Maybe this tactic won’t work on everyone, but if opens the eyes of one person and makes him/her take driving more seriously, it could potentially save lives. If it makes one person decide not to give their kids soda anymore, it could potentially change those childrens lives. I think it is completely worth it in every way.