(March 10) Uncle Sam wants you to shed a few pounds, and he's willing to provide some belly laughs to get you to do it.
With new government data showing that obesity is rapidly closing in on tobacco as the leading cause of death in the U.S., health officials are stepping up their efforts to persuade people to lose weight. Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson unveiled the government's edgiest attempt yet: a public-service ad campaign featuring love handles, blubbery bellies and other flabby body parts, all discarded by people who have started to eat right and get in shape.
The campaign was put together by the Ad Council, the nonprofit group behind such do-good messages as "Loose Lips Sink Ships" during World War II and the Smokey Bear campaign to prevent forest fire
It's built around a central creed of the Bush administration: that resolving the obesity crisis depends largely on whether individuals take personal responsibility for their own health and weight. Administration officials are pushing the philosophy both domestically and to the World Health Organization. The WHO has advocated more aggressive governmental action, such as restrictions on marketing to children and fiscal policies promoting healthier foods, in a draft of its strategy for fighting global obesity.Three new TV commercials, along with print, radio and billboard ads, attempt to drive home the message that it isn't necessary to join a gym or go on a crash diet to lose weight. In one TV ad, a man takes a pair of triangular body parts to the lost and found at a shopping mall.
"What are they?" he asks the clerk behind the counter. "Love handles," the clerk replies. "Lots of people lose them taking the stairs instead of the escalator." The clerk tosses them in a drawer, and a message fills the screen: "Take the stairs instead of the escalator. Take a small step to get healthy."
In another spot, two kids at the beach stumble over a belly buried in the sand. Someone shed it taking a walk, they decide. In a third spot, a couple at a supermarket nearly runs a shopping cart over a double chin -- left behind, the husband surmises, by someone "snacking on fruits and vegetables." The ads are scheduled to run during NBC's "Law & Order" and Fox's "American Idol," as well as other time slots and space donated to the Ad Council.
Facing growing evidence of the serious toll exacted on the health-care system by obesity-related conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, government health officials are scrambling to find new ways to reach the public. According to data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, poor diet and physical inactivity accounted for about 400,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2000. That was about 17% of all deaths and an increase of 100,000 in such deaths from 1990. Tobacco use, meanwhile, resulted in 435,000 deaths in 2000.
About 129.6 million Americans, or 64% of the adult population, are overweight, and about 31% are considered obese, according to the CDC. "This is a call to action," said CDC Director Julie Gerberding of the new data. "We've got to step up and scale up programs to deal with this issue."
I Am thinking about quit smoking....
With new government data showing that obesity is rapidly closing in on tobacco as the leading cause of death in the U.S., health officials are stepping up their efforts to persuade people to lose weight. Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson unveiled the government's edgiest attempt yet: a public-service ad campaign featuring love handles, blubbery bellies and other flabby body parts, all discarded by people who have started to eat right and get in shape.
The campaign was put together by the Ad Council, the nonprofit group behind such do-good messages as "Loose Lips Sink Ships" during World War II and the Smokey Bear campaign to prevent forest fire
It's built around a central creed of the Bush administration: that resolving the obesity crisis depends largely on whether individuals take personal responsibility for their own health and weight. Administration officials are pushing the philosophy both domestically and to the World Health Organization. The WHO has advocated more aggressive governmental action, such as restrictions on marketing to children and fiscal policies promoting healthier foods, in a draft of its strategy for fighting global obesity.Three new TV commercials, along with print, radio and billboard ads, attempt to drive home the message that it isn't necessary to join a gym or go on a crash diet to lose weight. In one TV ad, a man takes a pair of triangular body parts to the lost and found at a shopping mall.
"What are they?" he asks the clerk behind the counter. "Love handles," the clerk replies. "Lots of people lose them taking the stairs instead of the escalator." The clerk tosses them in a drawer, and a message fills the screen: "Take the stairs instead of the escalator. Take a small step to get healthy."
In another spot, two kids at the beach stumble over a belly buried in the sand. Someone shed it taking a walk, they decide. In a third spot, a couple at a supermarket nearly runs a shopping cart over a double chin -- left behind, the husband surmises, by someone "snacking on fruits and vegetables." The ads are scheduled to run during NBC's "Law & Order" and Fox's "American Idol," as well as other time slots and space donated to the Ad Council.
Facing growing evidence of the serious toll exacted on the health-care system by obesity-related conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, government health officials are scrambling to find new ways to reach the public. According to data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, poor diet and physical inactivity accounted for about 400,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2000. That was about 17% of all deaths and an increase of 100,000 in such deaths from 1990. Tobacco use, meanwhile, resulted in 435,000 deaths in 2000.
About 129.6 million Americans, or 64% of the adult population, are overweight, and about 31% are considered obese, according to the CDC. "This is a call to action," said CDC Director Julie Gerberding of the new data. "We've got to step up and scale up programs to deal with this issue."
I Am thinking about quit smoking....
I smell and taste better. 
....
