Georiga's Response to Childhood Obesity. . . What the hell?

Bobby

Tamika

Tina

Maritza

Jaden

First off, I have to say that Georgia has re-affirmed it's position as being one of the WORST states in the U.S., when it comes to child well-being. Second, Really?

I have so many issues with the campaign, starting with using the word "fat" to describe these kids, down to the phrase "being fat takes the fun out of being a kid" . . . what!?

One of the main issues with saying "fat" versus over-weight is that you are dealing with people's perceptions, not actual measurements. Not only are we giving bullies ammo to attack children that are over-weight BUT we are ensuring that the children who were comfortable with themselves have not an ounce left of self-esteem in there bodies. Come on Georgia, you couldn't think of anything better than this?

The idea behind sugar-coding the issue is something that I do understand but I don't know how a campaign like this doesn't do more harm then good. To my understand being under-weight is just as bad as being over-weight so what message are we really sending. It's better to be skinny and happy than fat and unhappy? Weight doesn't determine happiness, speaking from the un-happy, scrawny black child's perspective

Better yet, what about the children that are happy or don't have health issues, do they pass? I think the part that bothers me the most about this is that someone thought it was a great message. Someone thought that exploiting children on TV to say that they were fat is going to help. Yet, this doesn't change the fact that the families who already have financial struggles, can't afford healthy options. Nor does it change the fat that if families are not educated or don't help their children deal with the emotions that can come from a message like this, we may be dealing with other issues like low self-esteem, depression, etc.

I can just see some who themselves are probably over-weight working on this campaign thinking, "This has to be done." I honestly hope that it does work, because I would hate to see the ripple effect that something like this could have on a child. I also hope that if the intent was to piss people off enough to do something that we do better than this.

I think I would like to recommend ads with black boys saying "Have fun while it lasts. . . Being black isn't that fun either" with statistics on black male incarceration that follows. Needless to say, I'm out-raged. I think the seriousness could have been stressed without humiliation and the mention that it's not about being fat, it's about being healthy.

Good 'Ol Georgia. . . what the hell.