I have a Monday morning routine that I can set a clock by. The television comes on at 9am and I watch Regis, Dr. Phil and the first part of The View while I do laundry and household chores. This morning I noticed the number of diet ads in those 2.5 hours were astounding.
Lose weight...
Get thin...
Eat right...
You can only lose weight with THIS product...
Your life will be So Much Better if you were thin...
Of course these commercials were shown two or three at a time along with fried chicken and chocolate ice cream spots.
What is up with this?
I've always had issues with diet commercials especially because they usually target susceptible people with the hints that their lives will be better if only they buy a product that doesn't work. Yes, I am a woman of EPIC proportions and yes, I need to lose weight - but I'm really tired of being told that until I comply with society's standards of looks that I will never be happy or complete.
Bullshit. (Pardon my French)
What kind of message does this send to children?
Yes, 67% of American's are overweight but we live in a society that does not lend itself to eating properly. We tell kids to eat right and exercise but in the next breath the cable channels Nick and the Cartoon Channel are selling them Spongebob snack crackers and Scooby Doo cereal. A McDonald's 'Value Meal' has doubled in size in the last ten years and let's face it - who really needs a VAT of soda?
I'm not sure who's more screwed up, the money grubbing rip off artists who sell capsules of whale urine to 'lose significant amounts of weight' or the way we adults are running around trying to lose weight and 'conform'. (Or have the 'right' car or send the kids to the 'right school' or have the 'right' job) In the media we are bombarded by impossible standards of beauty that even supermodels cannot achieve without airbrushing.
How is this, 'standard'?
I learned a long time ago that what is on the outside fades so quickly and it is your character that will keep you going. So when are we going to turn our backs on these impossible standards and ridiculous claims from diet drug pushers and embrace who we are on the inside?
(Can you tell I'm a little cranky today?
Monday, May 01, 2006
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2 comments:
I have a problem with showing women who look like they have never eaten anything with calories in their life advertising these so-called fantastic excercise machines. Show someone with at least a mild gut or slightly chunky thighs doing the demonstrations. Instead, you buy this miracle equipment and guess what? Six weeks later you look nothing like the models. It isn't as easy as it looks and the results will be mild. If your healthy and comfortable with your size- be happy!
Exactly!
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