NYC Department of Health Advertisement Stirs Up Controversy on Two Fronts- Message Lost?
A “shock ad” from the New York City Department of Health illustrating a cause-effect relationship between soda consumption and diabetes-related amputation drew heavy fire on two fronts, and maybe lost its message in the process. The ad features an obviously overweight African American man with his right leg missing at the knee, and crutches leaning against the background wall. An illustration of increasing sizes of soft drink cups and the text, “Portions Have Grown; So has Type 2 Diabetes Which Can lead to Amputations”, complete the poster
Not surprisingly, soft drink manufacturers objected to the association between soft drinks and amputation, by way of Type 2 diabetes. But the real “headline grabber” was a revelation that the missing the leg was actually lost to “Photoshop”, and not surgery, when the actual photographic subject was found to have complete possession of both his original legs.
The image was taken by a professional photographer, and you can bet that the subject signed a waiver that makes this kind of manipulation perfectly legitimate. The NYC ad, along with other “shockers” in New York and elsewhere, is the latest strategy to figuratively “slap some sense into” the American public with respect to our unhealthiest habits because these health risks are in great measure preventable.
Unfortunately, there is a key message that has gotten lost because of this almost irrelevant deception—diabetes is “life and limb” serious! The message is lost in this specific case in the drama about the altered photo, as if every magazine cover hasn’t been “touched up”. But, do these shock tactics work? I honestly don’t know. What can it hurt to try, however?
I’m afraid that diabetes has become so common that we will begin to view the disease as a simple consequence of aging—reading glasses and metformin as the “welcome package” to one’s forties. But avoiding diabetes, on the one hand, and managing diabetes to avoid awful “complications”, on the other, is the same assignment except for the medication. It is diet and physical activity, we need to wake up America. But while the wake-up call can come anywhere along the line-- a shock ad, a diabetes diagnosis, tingling feet or an amputation-- some points along that line are just too late. Diabetes is “life and limb” serious.A “shock ad” from the New York City Department of Health illustrating a cause-effect relationship between soda consumption and diabetes-related amputation drew heavy fire on two fronts, and maybe lost its message in the process. The ad features an obviously overweight African American man with his right leg missing at the knee, and crutches leaning against the background wall. An illustration of increasing sizes of soft drink cups and the text, “Portions Have Grown; So has Type 2 Diabetes Which Can lead to Amputations”, complete the poster
Not surprisingly, soft drink manufacturers objected to the association between soft drinks and amputation, by way of Type 2 diabetes. But the real “headline grabber” was a revelation that the missing the leg was actually lost to “Photoshop”, and not surgery, when the actual photographic subject was found to have complete possession of both his original legs.
The image was taken by a professional photographer, and you can bet that the subject signed a waiver that makes this kind of manipulation perfectly legitimate. The NYC ad, along with other “shockers” in New York and elsewhere, is the latest strategy to figuratively “slap some sense into” the American public with respect to our unhealthiest habits because these health risks are in great measure preventable.
Unfortunately, there is a key message that has gotten lost because of this almost irrelevant deception—diabetes is “life and limb” serious! The message is lost in this specific case in the drama about the altered photo, as if every magazine cover hasn’t been “touched up”. But, do these shock tactics work? I honestly don’t know. What can it hurt to try, however?
I’m afraid that diabetes has become so common that we will begin to view the disease as a simple consequence of aging—reading glasses and metformin as the “welcome package” to one’s forties. But avoiding diabetes, on the one hand, and managing diabetes to avoid awful “complications”, on the other, is the same assignment except for the medication. It is diet and physical activity, we need to wake up America. But while the wake-up call can come anywhere along the line-- a shock ad, a diabetes diagnosis, tingling feet or an amputation-- some points along that line are just too late. Diabetes is “life and limb” serious.