health promotion through fear mongering - PCRM's anti-McDonalds advertisement

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine released a rather jarring ad, criticizing McDonalds high-fat foodstuffs by depicting a corpse in a morgue holding a Big Mac. Check out the video here. Shock value? Indubitably high. Quality of information? Distinctively mediocre. After super-imposing McDonalds' trademark golden arches on the corpse's feet, the commercial proclaim, “High cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart attacks. Tonight, make it vegetarian.” Indeed, excessive consumption of fast food do cause the aforementioned symptoms. But I think that the commercial is ineffective for several reasons, the first of which is that vegetarian diets sometimes consist of dressing-laden McSalads, milkshakes, and french fries - thus, simply avoiding meat isn't an effective strategy for healthy eating. Additionally, as Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity points out, the advertisement reinforces social biases against overweight and obese people:

"[The ad] is consistent with recent Rudd Center research that examined on-line pictures and documented overweight/obese individuals as more likely to be shown in stigmatizing ways (e.g., overemphasis on body parts, eating or drinking unhealthy food/drink, not fully clothed, and less likely to be wearing professional attire). These types of images are problematic because they increase negative attitudes toward overweight/obese people, even when paired with a neutral story."

Despite its good intentions, this ad may fail to discourage viewers from unhealthy eating. Instead, it stokes our already abundant anxiety about eating.