There's a story on how critics say the U.S. government's public health campaign on obesity is too tame to do any good. The campaign, called "Small Steps," advocates healthier snacks and using the stairs, but some health groups say the ads won't effect meaningful change because they aren't hard-hitting enough. Interestingly, in the middle of the article on MSNBC was a Hoodia weightloss spot showing an obese woman rapidly shrinking. Ha! But here's my favorite part: 

Young viewers pay more attention to ads that evoke feelings of personal loss, sadness, anger, disgust or fear, according to an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kids also tend to remember such ads longer.

That drama is lacking in the obesity spots — for example, none have offered a surgeon's view of fat, or dramatized a death from Type 2 diabetes, or shown a person complaining about how a fat neighbor's medical bills are costing taxpayers.

Oh yeah, I'm sure the kids would be just scared healthy by a spot on wasted taxpayer money. But really, is that the route to go? Second-hand money wasting? Look, one part of the problem is addressed at the end of the article: there's a serious reluctance to criticize the junk food industry in these ads. Imagine if the anti-smoking campaigns just told people to smoke less and breathe more clean air.

And here's the other reason I doubt any massive obesity awareness campaign is gonna have the desired effect. The prescription is different than in something like smoking. With smoking, the public health world took on the cigarette companies, were very unambiguous about the effects of smoking, and showed people how second-hand smoke could be harmful as well. But obesity? First of all, people do have to eat, so there's no abstinence solution, and second, there's already a stigma around obesity, so I doubt it has to be made unglamorous (as in the case of smoking.) And third, I don't think we have ever given people very clear guidelines about what and how to eat or how much to exercise or what kind to do and so on. Really. Forty bajillion articles on diet and exercise and I think people are still just lost at sea.

Micheal Pollan's NY Times article on food confusion remains one of the best things I've seen on the subject. Until we can give folks crystal-clear direction, I doubt we'll see much change.