for at least the last 10 years I have been hearing about Britain becoming increasingly more obese. I for one don’t have to see statistics to know that it is true. Today the British government launched their latest initiative to try and reverse the trend, cunningly they have devised a marketing campaign warning people of the dangers! The BBC details more about this campaign, but in essence it will be a public health warning like any other, “do this for long enough and you’ll die.” It seems to be this is a tried and tested root which ultimately won’t help the overall population, as the reaction of most about this message is “not me, I’ll be fine” or “I know, oh well, nevermind”, which is the usual response you’ll get from a smoker.
Surely the message that is pumped out there by the nanny state, should be targeted to individual groups. Children, teens, young adults, etc. need clear messages to meet their social status and time in life. For Example teens should have messages about looking good to the opposite sex, whereas children should be bowled over by adventure. In actual fact the message should play on the insecurities that commercial advertisers do. I always thought an anti smoking ad would be best if the tag line was, ‘it gives you spots’… who the hell would smoke after that.
What I’m really trying to say, if the government wants to help promote healthy lifestyles, then it needs to look at the source of the problem, and that source lies in mass produced packaged food and microwaves.
My answer, tax the microwave, increase tax on high fat foods, use the tax to subsidise fresh vegetables and fruit. Whilst ensuring that school kids have playgrounds, with fields school and finally abandoning this free travel for kids (this happens in London, and I see very little benefit, watch this space for a new post about it).