It's choice - not chance - that determines your destiny. - Jean Nidetch
Written by
December 17, 2009
Associate Director of Education
The Cooper Institute
The Cooper Institute
“Ew! “ or “Cool!” – You Be The Judge
We have been following the New York City public health department’s efforts to educate the masses about healthier food options. Earlier blogs focused on their food labeling initiatives.
• Read ‘Em Before You Eat ‘Em
• The Big Apple Puts a Bite in Calorie Labeling
Now NYC is making news for using YouTube to tell people that drinking on can of regular soda per day can add 10 pounds of fat to your body in a year. This follows a three month poster campaign (see picture above). The idea of the posters and video is to make people aware of the growing epidemic of obesity and the potential contribution of sugar-sweetened drinks to excess calories and body fat. So the angle the health department has taken is to shock people into thinking twice about downing another soda.
What’s so racy about the message? Nothing. But the visual is pretty graphic. Check out the video by clicking here. The video clip is building steam. There were over 78,000 views in the first two days.
So what do you think? Do the images of a guy drinking body fat from a soda can make you:
• assess your own soda drinking habits?
• queasy?
• swear off drinking regular soda?
• give yourself a pat on the back because you don’t drink regular soda?
How effective do you think this type of message will be? Tell us whether you give it a “Ew, gross” or “Cool stuff” vote.
