Photoshopped Amputation In Anti-Soda PSA Upsets Big Soda

"For penance, the DOH must shotgun six Pepsi Zeros WITH Pop Rocks in them"

It has been revealed that the New York City Health Department photoshopped an overweight man's leg out of an ad tying larger portion sizes to Type 2 diabetes and limb amputations. We received a noble press release from the good folks at the American Beverage Association blasting the lying liars at the DOH: “This is another example of the ‘What can we get away with?’ approach that shapes these taxpayer-funded ad campaign." Or is it a reasonable tactic against the larded Leviathans and their relentless lobbyists?

We hate Nanny State overreach as much as any redblooded, park-smoking New Yorker. But remember who the DOH is fighting against for ad space in our brains. McDonald's has LeBron, Pepsi has David Beckham, and we get upset if the city gets an intern to use Photoshop? Image altering is bad, but blatant sexism is savvy!

There are literally armies of scientists with unlimited budgets who are coming up with chemicals and additives to make us hopelessly addicted to consumable matter that may or may not be classified as food.

And we're supposed to be upset that New York City's department of health may have used a photo illustration to prove the point that drinking lots of soda may cause Type 2 diabetes which causes some patients to have their limbs amputated? BUT THE PHOTO ISN'T REAL!!!1!!!!!1!

What is real is the $13 million the American Beverage Association spent lobbying Albany in 2010, and the $211 million it spent nationwide to make sure that we continue nursing the corny teat until nobody can see their genitals or tie their shoes in 20 years. The DOH's budget? That got cut [pdf]. Fight flame-broiled Fire with Fudged Fire, and so it goes.

Health Department spokesman John Kelly responds to the "controversy," in the Times: “We might stop using actors in our ads if the food industry stops using actors in theirs.” Amen. Next time, maybe use a photo of a can of Fanta abducting a child on a subway platform and unplugging respirators.

And Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson brings up a good point: what is the Times hiding?

We'd also humbly add: are fast food chains still palling around with terrorists?

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Christopher Robbins in Food on January 25, 2012 1:04 PM

Comments [rss]

addie Alexander

So, If the DOH had used a person who had actually had a leg amputed, the soda people would have been happy to see, truth in DOH advertising? Did I get it? lol

yappy00

It's a crap ad anyway.

The wording is weak. The whole premise relies on two correlations:

a) portion size --> increase in diabetes

b) increase in diabetes --> amputations

... but it never definitively states or even claims a correlation for either. The use of the word "can" is the final nail in its coffin.

Whether or not the correlations are in fact there, the phrasing is so transparently "bad salesman"-esque, in its avoidance of any commitments to fact, that the whole scare factor falls flat.

yappy00

Not to mention that the absolute last thing you notice about the ad is the missing leg. Because it's overwhelmed by 3 cups of delicious soda; which, incidentally, look like they've been copy/pasted directly from a coupon for a local burger joint, at horrible resolution, and using MS Paint.

Whoever designed this ad needs to go back to marketing school. And Photoshop school.

Elizabeth Stockwell

I too am having a hard time getting outraged about it. Fuck I didn't even notice that the leg was amputated until this story came out. I thought it was just "this guy is fat"

felixthecat

sad part tis that the rest of him is real not photoshopped.

dogbertt

Isn't it enough the man is FAT??

Why y'all gotta take a brother's LEGS???

kenorasis

Well what were they supposed to do, cut it off?

ThreeAndNine

The "actual NY TImes subscribers" analogy is a bad one. Not only because there's no evidence that the Times has altered any photos used in their ads with intent to manipulate an emotional response, but also because the Times is a commercial enterprise, and these days no one has any expectation that they'll be told whole truths in commercial advertisements.

Many, though, are naive enough to still have full trust that a government agency will provide them with an accurate picture regarding health concerns, and will provide simple factual information without manipulation or deception.

So far, anyway. No doubt that perception is changing, especially in NYC.

Benjamin Crum

His leg?! What about his head! They totally chopped it off!

Roger_the_Shrubber

What the DOH will never figure out is that people who can't understand that drinking loads of soda will make them fat are just plain stupid and no amount of posters in the world can fix stupid.

Mordicai

I used to agree with you, until I educated myself on how poverty intersects with diet, & how education intersects with diet, & how poverty intersects with education.

unretrofiedforu

Precisely! Another truth uncovered.

Right wing zealots like roger would love to jump down your throat with quick talking points about how 'their' money (really, like about .0000002 cents) is used by the supposed invalids to purchase soda and the such. It makes it easier to understand the 'scary things' when you generalize everything completely flat.

And then would turn around and praise a 'business person' (if you can call them that anymore) for charging $6/8 oz for 'organic' orange juice probably packaged by undocumented workers. See - that's business* skill!

I said it before, I'll say it again:

Why are chicken nuggets ONLY 5/99 cents?

Take a look at how our gov't subsidizes corn production. You've already paid for it; at least 10x over!

SPsGhost

Roger doesn't "believe" in educating himself on issues like such as these.

unretrofiedforu

Exactly. There's so many generalizations and other flattening tools to completely disregard the problem - oo but can't let those gays marry - no way.

Eric Gordon

It's true. All too often I see people buying soda and chips with their EBT.

Dennis

I didnt know you could do that....
How do I go about getting this EBT....?

seattlesnow

apply

whitecastlerock

–while talking on their iphone wearing $200 sneakers

Roger_the_Shrubber

Exactly. One minute the government tells you this stuff is no good for you then they give you food stamps to buy all the shit they say you shouldn't eat or drink.

mlleBeth

But when the city wanted to stop allowing people to buy junk food on their EBT card there were a ton of people say that was discrimination, and why is the government allowed to tell us what to eat.