Do you think it’s fun for me to write about the same subject day after day after day after day, trying to think of new angles, or digging up new dirt, on an organization that I otherwise couldn’t give two shits about?

I only have so much creative energy on hand each day and this project has been the Hummer of psychic fuel consumption. I’m happy to spend it fighting against bigotry, ignorance and hatred, but I, for one, can’t wait until the billboards come down and we can all go back to whatever it was we were doing before all of this began.That includes Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. I don’t think they want to be deal with a bunch of pissed off fatties, or continuously develop new and interesting justifications for their sinister ad campaign which may or may not be profiting their weight loss and weight surgery center.* They’re just as sick of our shit as we are of theirs.

Isn’t it time we all said, “Enough” and wrapped up our respective campaigns?

With approximately 280 more donors needed to unlock the $5000 More of Me to Love Match, our goal of 1,000 donors is just out of reach. Once we reach that goal, we have decided to end the donation phase of our project (see how easy it is to switch from phase to phase, CHOA?) and begin the development phase of our Billboard Project. This will cap our advertising budget around $20,000, which is plenty for our needs.

So, I want to ask you all to help us throw a one-two punch today. There are two simple forms of armchair activism which will help us achieve our duel goals of ending the fundraiser and pressuring on CHOA to bring Phase 1 to a close. They’re pretty basic:

1. Ask one person to donate $1 to our Solidarity Dollar campaign, or donate yourself
2. Comment, like, and share my question for Michelle Obama on CNN iReport and/or ask your own

We can easily reach our goal of 1,000 donors today if everyone who reads this blog on a regular basis asked just one person to donate a Solidarity Dollar. So, please help us reach that goal today.

And if you want to see the First Lady give her opinion on Strong4Life, then we need to make it impossible for her to ignore our voice. With every question, comment and like, we improve our odds that she will hear our question.

I have a hard time believing that, in spite of the misguided, but well-intentioned, Let’s Move program, Michelle Obama would approve of the advertising campaign used by Strong4Life. If we can get her to discourage the use of such tactics, we would have a powerful ally in our corner.

So, please, take a moment and help us say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH and bring both of our campaigns to an immediate close. Thank you!

Today is Groundhog Day.  Before 1993,  Groundhog Day was all about whether the infamous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, was going to pop out of his burrow and see his shadow or not.  If he saw his shadow, he would retreat underground and winter would last for another six weeks.  Personally, if I was Punxsutawney Phil, and I popped up out of my burrow and saw throngs of strange people standing around staring at me I’d pop back underground in a flash! Thinking back, I can’t remember a single time that Phil did NOT pop back into his hole and winter was predicted to end early, and living in New York, it sure never felt like it did!

But then, in 1993, the movie Groundhog Day came out and similar to the old Hitchcock flick, Gaslight, the phrase Groundhog Day took on a new meaning.  If you are not familiar with the Bill Murray film, he is thrust into a reality where he keeps re-living Groundhog Day over and over and over.  Each morning he wakes up and it is the same day.  Each day he knows what is going to happen and eventually begins using the predictability in ways that are helpful to others.  He transforms into a more aware and less self-centered person as he plays with the hand that fate has dealt him.

One of the meta messages of the film was that for all of us, in some ways, life is like Groundhog Day.  Each morning when we wake up, we have a chance to pay attention more closely to those around us and tune in to events that sometimes seem invisible to us because we are busy, distracted, or just unconsciously going through our daily routines. We assume that things may be the same because they look the same and we are not used to digging deeper.  In fact, I am sure that some of you may have experienced a bit of that just now when you zoomed in on the billboard of the fat kids from Georgia.

“Enough already with this Deah, we’ve read about this already…so nu?   You’ve decided to just keep writing about the same thing over and over and over?  What is this…Groundhog Day?”

Well, yes…it is!  But that’s just a coincidence.  The reason I am writing about the billboards again is because there is an amazing event taking place TODAY!                     PLEASE READ ON!

If you haven’t heard about it yet, Children’s Hospital in Georgia is running an anti-obesity campaign that uses billboards of fat kids.  In my last blog I wrote about the  controversy surrounding these ads and the growing popular opinion that these billboards are more destructive than helpful.  Whether or not you feel that there is an obesity problem among children, the question being asked by many is whether a shaming campaign is a reasonable solution?

Today there is a powerful action taking place to put a billboard opposite one of the Strong 4 Life’s billboards that challenges their use of shame as a healthful intervention when it also gives a message to bullies that it’s o.k. to shame fat kids.

Ragen Chastain has teamed up with several people and has ignited a campaign today to raise money to buy that billboard in Georgia.    She writes about it brilliantly in her blog  (Ragen Chastain’s blog post)  and offers the opportunity to donate anywhere from 1 -100 dollars.  The goal is to get 1000 people to donate, in order to trigger Jay Solomon’s More of Me to Love matching fund of $5,000!

THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE A STAND AND BE A PART OF SOMETHING REALLY MEANINGFUL FOR AS LITTLE AS ONE DOLLAR!!!

Look, I wouldn’t be asking if this wasn’t really important.  I NEVER use this blog for raising money, I have no advertisers, and barely plug my own book on this blog (www.leftoverstogo.com).  So if I’m breaking one of my blog tenets to do this, trust me, it’s a big deal.

In Dr. Deah’s Hollywood, The Georgia Billboards, LapBand Billboards and Bypass Billboards would all disappear.  But for now, I will settle for one billboard in Georgia STANDING up for the rights of the kids.  Won’t you join me?  DONATE NOW BY CLICKING HERE

And if you haven’t heard the song  STAND!! by Sly and the Family Stone for a while, go directly to You Tube and check it out!

It’s inspiring!

I figured there was no harm in asking Strong4Life and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to pitch in some as well.

By now you’ve heard about our Big, Fat Moneybomb. We’d love to see $10k in one day, and all we need to really raise is $5,000 since we now have the $5,000 More of Me to Love Match on the table.

We’ve already confirmed from 165 supporters who are participating the BFM, and we want to persuade those who are on the fence to throw their financial support behind the Stand4Every Body Coalition to produce a positive public response to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Strong4Life’s.

With that in mind, I give you “10 Lies for 10 Thousand Dollars.”

The following are lies told by representatives of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta or Strong4Life regarding their campaign. Some of them you’ve already read, while others I’ve been holding onto for this very day. For today is the start of Fatty February, our month-long fundraiser to build a robust media response to Strong4Life.

10. “Obese children are at risk for developing heart disease, hypertension, liver and kidney disease and type 2 diabetes.” — Source: Strong4Life’s FAQ

Although obesity is correlated with those diseases, it is obese children who are sedentary and eat an energy dense diet who are at risk for developing heart disease, hypertension, liver and kidney disease and type 2 diabetes. But so are thin kids who are sedentary and eat an energy dense diet, such as the 17-year-old British girl who recently collapsed after subsisting on a diet of nothing but chicken nuggets for 15 years. A child, any child of any size, who eats a healthy diverse diet and gets the recommended amount of exercise can achieve positive health outcomes, regardless of weight loss.  Also, saying someone is “at risk” does not indicate how much of a risk, and I outlined the various risk levels from recent studies on the various diseases affecting children. The ads imply that ALL fat children are at risk for developing ALL of the disease listed, when the truth is much more complicated.

9. “My doctor said I have something called hypertension.” — Source: Strong4Life commercial

Actually, “Maritza” doesn’t have hypertension. Nor does “Tamika” have type 2 diabetes. In fact, Maritza and Tamika are fictional characters. Maritza is actually 11-year-old Chloe Swain, who is a confident and talented young girl. And Maritza is played by  a 14-year-old Maya Bradley, who, her mother reassures us, does have high blood sugar (because that’s totally the same as type 2 diabetes). I’m sure Maya appreciates that disclosure. As with the dishonest New York campaign that photoshopped a man’s leg away from a healthy man to portray him as a victim of diabetes, the question naturally arises as to why a public health campaign resorts to dramatizations of diseases that are ravishing our country. Even more disturbing, the man in that ad was not informed that he would become the face of diabetic amputations. While the children in the Strong4Life ads were aware of the goal of the ad campaign, the public should be informed with a disclaimer that the “testimonials” were actually dramatizations.

Now, here’s the kicker: the FTC recently released its latest guidelines on testimonials and endorsements and the Strong4Life commercials using child actors portraying fat children with illnesses they don’t actually have could violate those rules:

255.1 Consumer endorsements.

(d) Advertisers are subject to liability for false or unsubstantiated statements made through endorsements, or for failing to disclose material connections between themselves and their endorsers. Endorsers also may be liable for statements made in the course of their endorsements. [emphasis mine]

According to this analysis by a marketing and advertising attorney, not fully disclosing compensation can violate this rule:

If there is a connection between the endorser and the seller of the advertised product that might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement (i.e., the connection is not reasonably expected by the audience) — even in-kind compensation — then you must “fully” disclose the nature of the connection.

Strong4Life is partially compensating the child actors with participation in the Strong4Life program, which is the definition of “in-kind compensation.” Why aren’t they disclosing this fact to viewers?

8. “The ads aren’t aimed at children.” — Source: Everywhere.

When Strong4Life received a second round of media attention at the beginning of the year, critics began asking why Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta would target children for a public shaming and bullying campaign. Their response has been consistent across all platforms: “The ads aren’t aimed at children, they are aimed at the parents.” And while the claim itself is laughable, what’s even more hilarious is the fact that their message of “We aren’t targeting children” isn’t entirely consistent.

When the ad campaign launched in May 2011, Strong4Life chairman, Ron Frieson, appeared on The Today Show, where Meredith Vieria asked him, “You’re aiming it at parents, not kids, right?” Vieria set up the question to nudge Frieson into not admitting that their campaign was might actually affect fat kids in the state of Georgia. Instead, Frieson declared their intentions from the very beginning: “Well actually, we want parents to be aware, but we want educators to be aware and we want other kids to see these kids who may very well relate to them.”

If your chairman says that you are targeting fat kids with your fat-shaming billboards, then you are targeting fat kids with your fat-shaming billboards. Period.

7. “BMI is a measure of a person’s body fat.” — Source: Strong4Life’s FAQ

This is just one of several erroneous, convoluted or questionable claims made on Strong4Life’s FAQ, as I dissected thoroughly in this post. You would think that a healthcare organization that specializes in childhood obesity would be able to get their basic facts straight, but Body Mass Index is an indicator of overall body mass, not a measure of body fat. It has become a proxy for body fat, but nobody with any real understanding of the issues would claim that BMI is a measure of body fat. The equation, which is individual’s body weight divided by the square of his or her height, ensures that whether you’re a 5’7″, 200-pound couch potato or a 5’7″, 200-pound body builder, your BMI of 31.3 earns you the label of obese.

6. “Sam states he’s been bullied less.” — Source: Twitter

While this statement is factually true (Sam did state that he has been bullied less in this NPR article), the claim was made in response to an accusation that Strong4Life’s ads contribute to bullying. By pointing to Sam’s quote, Strong4Life implied that the billboards have somehow lessened the impact of bullying on fat kids, when in reality, Sam is getting bullied less because he had lost weight. Sam’s full quote reads, “I was being bullied a lot because of my weight, and after I started losing it, it cut down quite a lot.”

But research on weight loss attempts in children is well-documented, as in this three-year prospective study of 15,000 boys and girls aged 9 to 14 in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. In that study, researchers concluded:

Although medically supervised weight control may be beneficial for overweight youths, our data suggest that for many adolescents, dieting to control weight is not only ineffective, it may actually promote weight gain.

Strong4Life had nothing to do with reducing Sam’s bully problem. If they helped him lose weight, then they have merely postponed the cruelty until he does what almost everyone does when they attempt to lose weight: gain it back, and then some.

5. “Don’t judge your child or make jokes about their weight. It is important that your child maintain a feeling of self-worth and increased self-esteem.” — Source: the Sharecare account of Dr. Stephanie Walsh, Medical Director for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

This is the most craven and shameless lie I have heard on the campaign. While the content of what Dr. Walsh says is true, and she seems to understand and accept the well-documented effects that stigma has on fat children, but the fact that Dr. Walsh is still defending the ads means that although she is aware of the importance of preserving a fat child’s self-esteem, she just doesn’t give a shit in actual practice. Either Dr. Walsh believes what she said above, but is willing to disregard this truth while executing a shame-based campaign, or else she was lying to the parent who asked her for advice on Sharecare and really believes shame should be used to motivate children. She cannot defend both stances.

4. 75% of parents “didn’t know there was an issue/did not recognize their child was obese/ignore the problem.” — Source: Twitter and Strong4Life website

This has become the cornerstone of Strong4Life’s shame campaign. The reason they are “targeting adults” is because 75% of parents have some variation of the claim cited above. The reason I listed three claims is that this 75% statistic has been used inconsistently on Twitter, Facebook and in their own advertising. Vesta located a claim on ABC News that the 75% result came from a survey done in two towns in Georgia. After requesting the published results of  data from Strong4Life on January 9, I received this response from Strong4Life’s Twitter account on January 11:

It has now been 22 DAYS since they began “collecting” that research background and we still have not received any information. How can a major healthcare institution declare war on the parents of fat children without their research ducks in a row? We have since called on CHOA to release the raw data, rather than the spin they are currently preparing, if they are preparing anything at all.

3. “We won’t remove your comment just because we don’t like it” and “‘Spam,’ whether to advertise or simply repeat any message multiple times on our Facebook wall is prohibited.” — First Quote Source: Strong4Life Facebook page; Second Quote Source: Strong4Life Facebook page

After posting my request for the 75% research, Strong4Life banned me from their Facebook page and blocked me on Twitter. Fortunately I took screen caps of the “offensive” passages, which do not appear to violate their terms except when I said, “Shame on you.” Since then, several others have been banned from their page for posting a copy of their STANDards, and they receive the following message:

Fair enough, but one of astute observer noted something unusual:

See? They’re not selectively removing posts. Yeah, they’ve been certain to delete each and every STANDard that has been posted, but they’re monitoring their Facebook page for any and all advertising and deleting it immediately… right?

Glancing through their page, that doesn’t seem to be the case as of 12:37 p.m. Central:

2. “Just ask Bobby.” — Source: Strong4Life page

Thanks Strong4Life, I would love to just ask Bobby. How do I ask him?

Well, we’re told that this is Bobby here:

Bobby is the “star” of the crème de la shame commercial, where the young boy asks his mom “Why am I fat?” and she hangs her head in shame. In this commercial, we get a better look at Bobby in stark black and white.

But then I noticed something odd. When Strong4Life finally released their Phase 2 commercials in response to my video asking where Phase 2 was, I stumbled across this video:

Andrew? Who the hell is Andrew? It looks like the same kid as Bobby (same overbite, same face), but this kid runs around and says, “It’s fun to be strong for life!”

What the hell is this? Is this Bizarro Bobby? Because based solely on a comparison of the two videos, both kids are fat. The only difference is that Bobby is in black and white, slumped in a chair, admitting to his shameful fatness, while Andrew is in color, running around and admitting to his strength.

Strong4Life focuses on the visual identification of fat kids. All of the children used in the advertising are demonstrably fat and, therefore, targets for “attention” from Strong4Life. So, if they use visual clues to determine whether a child is healthy (read: thin) or unhealthy (read: fat), then how do you distinguish between fat and shameful Bobby and fat and strong Andrew? Are we now to only shame fat kids who aren’t perpetually running around repenting for their weight?

This is our grievance with Strong4Life: you cannot tell by looking at a fat child whether he or she is healthy. For that matter, you cannot tell whether a fat child has just lost or gained 20 pounds due to dieting. Shaming all fat kids for having fat bodies is wrong and Strong4Life knows this. Which calls into question their underlying motivation?

Today, when confronted by Valerie Gritsch, who expressed her disgust with medical professionals bullying kids,  Strong4Life gave the following response:

Please notice that although they say they had 600 patients enter their Health4Life clinic, which treats overweight and obese children, they do not say how many of them are presenting the illnesses in question. All they say is that they expect there to be 1,200 new patients to Health4Life in 2012. So, what does Health4Life do?

Well, among the healthcare services they offer, the Health4Life Clinic offers treatment plans for “healthy weight loss and weight management,” as well as weight loss surgery. So, my next question would be how many of their patients are receiving treatment for “obesity-related illnesses” and how many of those 600 are simply there for some form of weight loss treatment? We already know that Chloe and Maya, two of the actresses from the commercials, do not have any health problems. Are they receiving weight loss consultations as part of their “compensation” package? Do they offer weight management services to kids who don’t have health issues that are presumably due to weight? These are all questions to which I seriously doubt we will receive an honest answer.

1. “The new PAs begin mid-January in Atlanta.” — Source: Twitter

Repeatedly, Strong4Life has assured critics that this is “just the first step” in their campaign. In the Today Show interview, Frieson outlines the three distinct phases that would take place over the course of this campaign. The shame would not go on indefinitely, as the second phase, called “Activate,” would follow the first phase, called “SHAME ON YOU, YOU DISGUSTING PILE OF CRAP!” From the beginning, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Strong4Life have pushed the idea that this is a multi-phase campaign and that shocking ads were only there until they got parents’ attention.

On January 3, HealthHabits asked Strong4Life when Phase 2 would begin and this is the response they gave on Twitter:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t “phases” typically end before the following phase begins? Because while on January 22 Strong4Life released the Phase 2 ads on YouTube, Phase 1 is still going strong. Haven’t we been assured that Phase 1 was temporary and that Phase 2 would replace the shameful ads with uplifting ads?

Have they purchased ad space for Phase 2 on television to replace the Phase 1 commercials? Are they promoting the more uplifting Activate ads with the same ferocity that they promoted the dehumanizing Shame ads? Are the same fat kids that they have degraded for NINE MONTHS even aware that there’s a second phase in which fat kids are shown playing and laughing and enjoying life IN COLOR?

There’s a simple way to see what kind of reach Phase 2 is getting: Bobby’s commercial currently has a quarter of a million viewers, while Andrew’s commercial has… let’s see, carry the two, multiply by the prime, inverse the coefficients… 181 views.

It is time for Phase 1 to end. And not just a “here’s a few 15 second color commercials to satisfy you fatties” kind of end, but the billboards and the advertisements from Phase 1 must stop.

And we need you to help us stop them. By participating in the Big, Fat Moneybomb tomorrow, you will be sending a message to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta that we will not allow them to profit off of the shame they have inflicted on the children of Georgia. We have various levels of giving, but no amount is too small. Every dollar matters.

You can read more about the details of the moneybomb at Support All Kids, which is where you will go tomorrow to donate. You can also confirm your commitment to this campaign on Facebook.

We are seeking to raise $10,000 dollars, and I think at a thousand dollars a lie, we will meet, and exceed, our goal. Please, share this information with everyone you know and ask them to give tomorrow. Until then…

Every day since January 5, I have added to the exhaustive list of reasons why Strong4Life’s shame campaign is both morally and medically wrong, and we have begun to join our voices in Marilyn Wann’s chorus of STANDards.

The result? An energized community that is getting harder and harder to ignore.

But how do we get past “hard to ignore” and onto the national stage where we can directly challenge Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and demand that they stop bullying fat children?

With a bomb.

No, not this kind of bomb.

This kind.

It’s called a moneybomb and it first appeared during the 2008 presidential election. On November 5, 2007,  the Ron Paul campaign organized a single day of financial frenzy, where each supporters  donated the amount they were already planning to donate at some point in the campaign.

In a single day, they amassed an incredible $4.3 million and captured headlines instantly, and the practice has become a staple of modern political fundraising, most recently seen with Elizabeth Warren’s $1 million moneybomb.

The money bomb achieves two goals: 1) it raises a whole lot of money in a short amount of time and 2) it gets the media’s attention.

So, this Thursday, February 2, we are launching our Big, Fat Moneybomb to raise $10,000 for a two month billboard installation in Atlanta, Georgia. If we raise less than $10,000, we will use the money for an alternative media campaign within our budget. If we raise more than $10,000, then we will create an extended media campaign within our budget. Details are available at Ragen Chastain’s Support All Kids, including the donation plans, processes and policies.

Now, I know what you’re thinking because I was thinking the same thing when Ragen shared the quote she got on the billboard. “$10,000? Can we do that?” I’ve given it a lot of thought since then, as have Ragen, Marilyn and many, many others, and we are absolutely certain that we can raise at least $10,000.

But if you’re still skeptical that we can pull it off, I’ve got one more bit of information to pull you over to the Optimist side. Yesterday, Ragen finalized the details of an incredible offer from Jay Solomon and the wonderful team at More of Me to Love.

Announcing the…

More of Me to Love Match

MOMTL will match us dollar for dollar up to $5,000 for the cost of the billboard if we achieve two goals:

1. The campaign must raise at least $5,000
2. The campaign must have at least 1,000 individual donors with no minimum on the donation

Do you think we can raise $5,000 to send a strong and positive message to the children of Atlanta? Because I sure as hell know we can. I think we can raise $20,000 and have a full-on media blitz. In fact, every single dime that we raise will be poured into our media campaign to possibly limit the psychological damage that Strong4Life as been inflicting for NINE MONTHS.

In the time it has taken Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Strong4Life to “get the attention” of parents, educators and children, somewhere a child could have been conceived, gestated and birthed.

Let’s make sure that newborn baby can grow up in a world without billboards that contribute to a culture of dehumanization, degradation and humiliation for millions of fat, and not so fat, kids.

If you’re on Facebook, please RSVP for the Big, Fat Moneybomb event so we have an idea of how many to expect for our little soiree. Or, if you prefer, email Ragen at ragen at danceswithfat dot org to receive a reminder.

Please, join us on February 2 and help send a message to the world that we will not allow our children to be shamed or stigmatized for their weight. Thank you.

Friday I explained why I am willing to accept the assistance of anyone who wants to help us tear down the billboards in Georgia, whether in the form of comments from fat-shaming Alton Brown or the theoretical support of MeMe Roth.

And the fact is that people from all sides of the obesity issue are galvanized in opposition to a public “health” campaign that shames and stigmatizes fat children. The question remains who, aside from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, is still defending these ads as acceptable?

This past weekend I received the disturbing answer to that question.On Friday, I received a request from Leah Segedie of Mamavation to help respond to Strong4Life supporters on Twitter. Since I firmly believe that refuting bigots and maxim-chucking fat haters is a great educational tool, I decided to take a look and was taken aback by the person who seemed to be giving Leah the greatest pushback.

I am erasing the name of this Manic Tweeter to minimize the flaming she truly deserves, primarily since after the onslaught of tweets I received this weekend (you can see the entire stream here), I’m starting to think there may be something seriously wrong with this woman.

So, basically, Manic Tweeter says that these ads are giving a voice to obese children since the parents of obese children are in denial and refuse to listen to their kids. And since the Fat Children of Georgia hired Strong4Life to send a message to their parents, then whatever Strong4Life, as the voice of the Fat Children of Georgia, decides to say is fully justified since 75% of Georgia’s parents “do NOT recognize the problem and their role in it.” Furthermore, fat kids expressing how they feel about themselves should not produce guilt, and the stark messages are necessary since kids don’t control their food supply.

Have I summarized this first series of claims okay?

Great.

Now, let’s talk about height. Short boys and tall girls experience their own fair share of bullying, and both groups frequently express self-loathing for the physical attribute for which they are stigmatized. Being picked on day in and day out for being too tall or too short takes its toll on a child’s self-worth, and that insecurity worms its way into the child’s identity so that when they speak of their own physical appearance, they mimic what they have been told.

Now imagine if there were national campaigns that reinforced the belief that being too tall or too short was unhealthy, unattractive, and unacceptable. This cultural environment only contributes further to the self-loathing of the tall girl or the short boy.

Now imagine that we ask that tall girl or that short boy to describe their own bodies, their own feelings, their own sense of self-worth. Will their words be positive or negative? Proud or ashamed? Healthy or self-destructive?

For those kids who take in those messages, yet retain their feelings of self-worth, they may very will express a positive outlook on their own bodies, while a greater number will express those internalized feelings… feelings that strangers and bullies and, sometimes even, parents drummed into the tall girl or the short boy.

Finally, imagine that only the words of the children with low self-esteem were chosen to represent the internal emotions of ALL the tall girls and short boys in Georgia. What message does that send to that fortunate group of kids with resilient self-esteems and strong feelings of self-worth? It tells them, “Feel good about yourself? Well, this is how you should really feel.”

Posting the self-loathing comments of fat kids on billboards is not therapeutic. It is manipulation and exploitation. Presenting the words of a stigmatized group as if they are statements of fact that justify Strong4Life’s campaign is preposterous.

It would be as though someone took the experiment which found that black children prefer white dolls and decided that used this research to justify the elimination of all black dolls, since black kids find them inferior. To use a stigmatized group’s natural response to stigma and turn it around as if to say, “HA! Even you admit you’re inferior!” is truly disturbing, but not surprising.

So, no, publicizing the internalized stigma of children is not therapeutic, it is highly manipulative and dangerous to the self-esteem of all kids who feel fat in Georgia, which includes those who aren’t actually fat, but have a distorted body image.

As far as the claims that the children of obese parents don’t care/ignore the issue/are in denial, this has to be the most degrading comment this person has made. The only “evidence” that this is true (the 75% claim) comes from a study funded and reported on by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. As I mentioned on January 9, this study has not been published, nor has CHOA provided the details of the study itself.

It has now been 19 days since CHOA finally responded to my requests for a copy of the research when they said “research bkgrd is being collected.” Meanwhile, ignorant bigots are citing this number as though God descended from the Heavens to deliver this statistic.

Of course, this won’t matter to this, or any other, person who thinks shaming and stigmatizing fat children is an acceptable tool in the fight against childhood obesity. In the War on Fat, any harm done to a child’s psychological health is necessary collateral damage.

And what these bigots refuse to respond to is the broadly-accepted research that definitively outlines the harms caused by stigmatization, which includes a worsening of the very metabolic disorders they claim to be fighting against. Or how about the explosion of eating disorders, which are pose a greater threat to a child’s health than obesity. While the fear is that obese kids become obese adults, at which point they will reap the consequences of their weight, children who suffer from anorexia are in very real danger of dying now as a child, rather than later as an adult.

Which brings me to the claim that stark messages are necessary because children don’t control their food environment. So, if a child is fat because their parents’ have fostered an unhealthy food environment, then why target fat kids with ads that tell them they will die before their parents?

When I asked Manic Tweeter that very question, this is the response I got:

Ah, yes, I had forgotten that children are forbidden from entering downtown Atlanta during rush hour and that after rush hour, the billboard company covers the entire thing with a drop cloth.

Seriously? I’ve been cracking wise about “magic sunglasses” that allow parents to read the billboards, but not the kids, and Manic Tweeter actually owns a fucking pair.

Ah, yes, because Manic Tweeter’s children don’t read billboards, then no fat child will ever see them. Children are far too busy with their iPods and their comic books and their Britney Spears’ to see what’s going on outside the car.

I believe this is the point in our back-and-forth that I decided that this person has lost her grip on reality in her zealous fight against obesity. And that zealotry, mind you, is based on facts. Cold, hard facts.

You can find a compilation of those tweets here, but I’ll list them out with the actual links and describe the contents:

• LA Times article titled Fat American Children: Many Causes, a Lifetime of Effects — The article is about a study that shows how poverty, race and the state you live in can contribute to obesity (aka the social determinants of health, which I covered in great detail here). Basically, this article explains how the circumstances you are born into, rather than the nefarious intentions of bad parenting, affect a child’s health and weight.
• Fitness Programs For Kids — An article on incorporating more physical fitness into your child’s life.
• Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: Baby Fat Can’t Be Blamed for Obesity — A story about research that found that a baby’s weight does not determine adult weight. “The basic fact is this:  bigger babies do not automatically result in the outcome of obese adults, like some people may have you believe.” The author then goes on to suggest that education, not birth weight, is responsible for the obesity epidemic, a claim the Tweeter was originally linking to.
• 6 Naturally Sweet Treats — A Parenting magazine article about replacing sweet treats with fruit. Wait, fruit is healthier than ten pounds of chocolate? Gee, thanks for enlightening me, Manic Tweeter!
• 2011 Florida Statutes: 381.0054 Healthy lifestyles promotion — Legislation to promote healthy lifestyles. How legislative action equals “fact” is beyond me.
• The CDC’s Obesity and Overweight page — So by simply referring me to the CDC’s page on obesity and overweight, this somehow proves that using shame and stigma on fat children is acceptable. That’s like a global warming skeptic saying, “Refute these facts!” and linking to Climate Skeptic. The CDC is not the Pope, they aren’t infallible, as demonstrated by their complete botching of the mortality statistics on obesity. Now, if you want to present me with a specific claim of the CDC, I’ll be happy to comment on it, but simply linking to an anti-obesity site doesn’t really do anything for me.
• CHOA’s Childhood Obesity Panic page — More “facts” that prove we have to treat fat kids like shit to save them. But let’s just assume you wanted me to see how fat children get horrible diseases. Fair enough, I’ve already responded to that claim in this post, where I explained how although childhood obesity is correlated with some diseases, the actual incidence of those diseases is quite low. But regardless of disease rates, those of us who are against Strong4Life are not against treating diseases or improving the health of children, but we’ll get to that. What we are against is singling out one group and shaming them ALL for the diseases they may or may not get.
• Stop Making Excuses and Teach Your Children How to be Healthy — This “fact” is brought to us by some irrational butthole who thinks “Maggie Goes on a Diet” is perfectly acceptable and said, “The thought of my children growing up as one of the ‘fat’ kids is absolutely horrifying to me.” I’m sorry, but the person who wrote this post has some serious issues that preclude any rational person from taking health advice from her. But even setting that aside, IT’S HER FUCKING OPINION, not a statement of fact. Linking to your eating disordered pal as proof that Strong4Life is justified does not fly. Sorry.
• MTV’s True Life: I’m Obese — I’m sorry, but how difficult is it to have a casting call for self-loathing fat kids? This proves nothing except that MTV once had a TV show with self-loathing fat kids. Wow, stunning fact.
• Overweight kids experience more loneliness, anxiety, MU study finds — Aside from this coming from my alma mater, MU, what is this supposed to prove except what we already know: fat kids are stigmatized by our culture and, as a result, feel like shit. Wow, stop the fucking presses.
• Obesity ‘worse for teen girls’ blood pressure’ — Ah, we finally get to an actual scientific claim, which is substantiated by research. Ooooooooooor is it? Turns out, this “study” was actually just an abstract, and nothing more, issued by the American Physiological Society after a conference. I currently have a copy of that abstract, which does not indicate actual rates, merely the risk ratio. It has not gone through the peer review process, which instantly puts their claims into question, but the fact that all that is given is the spooky risk ratio without any context means that this study is completely worthless. It would be as if I said, “Blue-eyed kids are 5 times more likely to die of brain cancer” and you said, “But how many blue-eyed kids die from brain cancer each year” and I said, “Meh… I’ll figure it out later.” So, the one solid claim the Manic Tweeter makes is based on incomplete research that has not gone through the process which ensures the data is accurate. Great job!

Wow, those are some stunning facts that have convinced me that the way to treat childhood obesity is to shame and stigmatize fat kids. Congratulations, Manic Tweeter, you persuaded me!

But that isn’t even the best part. Are you ready for the best part? She directs me to this story, the headline of which reads “Girl hospitalized after 15 years of chicken nuggets.” Oh no! Poor little fat kid was forced to eat chicken nuggets for 15 years and her obesity finally laid her low. We must save the Obese Nugget Monkey! Finally, definitive proof that we must do something to save the fat chil—

Eh? What’s that? You want me to look at the original story on Daily Mail? Okay.

Wait, this is the obese nugget monkey?

But she’s not fat? How can a kid eat chicken nuggets every day of her life and not be fat? It’s like there’s a whole complicated regulatory system that limits a person’s ability to alter their natural genetic inheritance.

That’s because there is a whole complicated regulatory system that limits a person’s ability to alter their natural genetic inheritance. To learn more, check out the awesome article on Dr. Jeffrey Friedman here.

Not only that, but it means that Manic Tweeter’s pathetic assumption that fat = unhealthy is based on stereotypes, not facts, not data, just ignorance and lazy thinking.

That is why when you present facts to people like Manic Tweeter, it does not matter. They respond with their own set of “facts” that are culled from the most troubling headlines they can find. They don’t actually read the articles they are citing, let alone dig deeper to find out more about the research on which the articles are based. Simply Google, “Obesity Bad,” cut and paste your links and your job is done!

And when you present them with actual research that cites actual studies with actual conclusions from actual scientists, such as this review in the Journal of Nutrition on the expanse of literature supporting Health at Every Size^®, they respond not with counterarguments based on competing research, but with accusations and more stereotypes.

Because you and I and the rest of a rational, compassionate humanity find Strong4Life’s billboards to be hateful and dangerous, Manic Tweeter accuses us of being anti-health and against a child’s right to be healthy.

These are the remaining supporters of Strong4Life: angry, irrational, hateful people who have no idea what it’s like to be a fat kid in this country.

We do not need stigma and shame to promote health. We can improve the lives of ALL children EVERYWHERE by focusing on improving access to healthy, fresh foods and places to play. Education is the key, not shame, and anyone who thinks that Strong4Life is an educational organization is dead wrong. They have one goal: spreading shame and stigma throughout the state of Georgia.

I don’t know about you, but I will not stand for this shameless approach to healthcare any more.

Thankfully, Jennifer survived a tormented childhood to develop into an intelligent, talented performer whose words and work are inspiring thousands of others to learn to love and accept their bodies as they are, rather than continue the endless cycle of self-dissatisfaction that hurts so many children today.

Many thanks to Jennifer for having the strength to share her story, and I invite you to share your story as well. Since nobody on the staff at Strong4Life has been a fat child, we need to educate them on just what a special kind of hell being a fat child is, and why adding to that pain with a shame-based campaign will only make matters worse.

We are standing up for kids and saying enough is enough!  By now you’ve heard of Strong4Life, a campaign by the Children’s Hospital of Atlanta that shames and humiliates fat kids under the guise of promoting health. They have billboards up all over Atlanta, reinforcing a message of shame and stigma every day for those driving by.  It’s time to take a stand and support developing healthy habits in kids of all sizes without stigmatizing fat ones.

We are raising funds to put up billboards in high traffic areas around Atlanta with positive messages to counteract the negative Strong4Life campaign.  This campaign kicks off with our Big Fat Money Bomb on Thursday, February 2nd. The goal is to raise as much money as possible on the first day of the campaign for momentum and publicity.  If you want a reminder on February 2nd just e-mail me at ragen@danceswithfat.org and I’ll put you on the list!

Why should we put up billboards?

• To show fat kids in Georgia that they are valued and supported.
• To give fat kids in Georgia the opportunity to see a positive image of themselves in mainstream media.
• To generate media coverage that gives our credentialed experts an opportunity to educate.
• Bullies count on our fear and their money.  Putting up a billboard send the message that we aren’t scared, and that we can accomplish something big.  It tells these bullies that they can’t take our lunch money any more.

100% of the money raised goes directly to the project. Our billboards need to go up, and theirs need to come down.

Let’s make it happen starting with our Big Fat Money Bomb on February 2nd.

In the words of one of my blog readers “I don’t have much in the way of money to spare, but I will raid the penny jar to get size positive billboards up in Georgia.  Forget getting new jeans!  These kids need help!”

Let’s get this done.  No donation is too big or too small, every little bit helps!

The specifics:

Every $10,000 that we raise gives us 2 months of a billboard in a very high traffic area including all production costs.  If we exceed our goal, we will use the funds for additional time, billboards, and media campaigns including ads in Atlanta newspapers, signage around Atlanta, television segments etc.  If we should not reach our goal, all funds will go to create alternative media campaigns such as those named above to support these kids.

Once we have funds we will choose a billboard from those available in the highest possible traffic area and in as close proximity as possible to an existing Strong4Life billboard.

We are holding an open submission for designs for the billboard and will vote as a community on which design(s) we will use.  If you would like to submit a design please send it to ragen@danceswithfat.org

Funds collected for this project go directly into an independent bank account and all financials are transparent and publicly available with the exception of donor names which can be made anonymous on request.

If you have any questions please e-mail Ragen Chastain at ragen@danceswithfat.org