Tuesday, July 13, 2010

MARKETING, MEDIA AND OBESITY








SUNDAY, JULY 11, 2010


Hi, my name is Audrey, a black woman and I want to voice my concern and frustration I feel when I am continually presented with commercials that portray blacks as obese characters with unhealthy diets trying to sell you unhealthy food.

An example that immediately comes to mind is Hillshire Farms smoked sausages.  The primary character is an obese black man grilling and singing in the "Go Meat" product campaign.  The other white characters are  a normal size.  













The company produces sausages, lunch meat and pork products - all unhealthy foods for everyone.  The company is owned by Sara Lee.  Fast food restaurants and companies such as Hillshire Farms, Jimmy Dean and Sunbeam bread target their products and marketing efforts towards minorities.  



Sara Lee owns Hillshire Farms, along with a large number of diversified companies.  In many cases you would not connect the dots, but when you look at the large number of companies within the Sara Lee umbrella of companies sold world wide, it is amazing, and most are not sold here.  An example of some Sara Lee Brands sold world wide include:

Bakery:

Bimbo, Bistro Collection,  Bon Gateaux , Bony, Butter-Krust, Earth Grains, Sara Lee, Sunbeam, and others.











Meats:
Ball Park, Deli d'Italia, Deli Perfect, Gallo Salame, Hillshire Farm, Jimmy Dean, Kahn's, Mr. Turkey, Sara Lee, State Fair, West Virginia Brand, and others., and others.
And other products for: body care, air care, detergents, insecticides, shoe care, and beverages.

It may not register in our brains when we repeatedly see commercials with obese blacks eating extremely unhealthy food, but we need to pay attention.  Notice the number of obese black actors in ads, what products they are pushing.  Also, take note of what advertising campaigns portray obese white characters and what products they are promoting.  Companies do pay attention to consumer complaints, boycotts, and negative media attention.  

Studies have presented the obesity by race statistics and the results are alarming.  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that blacks have a 5% higher prevalence of obesity compared to whites in a 2006-2008 study.  Another recent study by Dr. T.G. Reid reports that we are the most obese group in the U.S.; 4 out of 5 black women are overweight or obese.  50.8% of black women are obese, 28.8% of black men are obese.  The reason for the difference is that black men exercise more and eat less fattening foods.  

Another contributing factor is that obese black women consider themselves as curvy, sexy, and more appealing to black men then normal-weight women. There are many ads in the personals and on line dating services from men who specify that they are looking for big, beautiful women (BBF).  The clothing industry continues to make larger sizes to accommodate women and girls wearing sizes 3X and up. Furniture is larger, seats in movie theaters are larger, the only industry that has not changed to accommodate the larger Americans is the airline industry.  The requirement to buy two seats if you are obese is right around the corner; today they weigh your luggage, tomorrow they will weigh you.

I speak from the heart when I say that obesity in the Black community is killing us, just as much as gangs and guns.  My niece is 16 years old, intelligent, pretty face, but weighs 235 pounds.  Her mother, my sister has Diabetes Type I, since she was 7 years old.  She is overweight and the diabetes is affecting all of her body systems.  My cousin, who was 50 years old, died of diabetes last year, he was receiving dialysis treatments 3/week, and was still on the kidney organ transplant list, one leg had already been amputated. In that family of 6 children, 5 have Type II diabetes, I recently found that my youngest cousin who is in her 30s in on the kidney list also.
(Blacks are very reluctant to donate their organs, and in most cases, donation matches are from the same race - but that is another issue)

I have observed the increasing number of girls and women that are obese.  I see children young enough to need to hold their mother's hand and the children are overweight.  This scene takes place at grocery stores frequently; the family is overweight and you look in their shopping cart and it is full of prepackaged, processed, or frozen food, snack food, peanut butter and jelly, Wonder bread, bologna/American cheese, unhealthy sweet cereal, desserts, sodas, beer and prepackaged lunch packs.  What is not in the cart?  Any thing that did not come in a box; fresh produce, canned tuna fish to make sandwiches with healthy ingredients and whole wheat/7 grain bread, fish, soup, oatmeal/granola cereal,  lo-fat milk, and healthy snacks.

Children should not grow up with the assumption that they too will be obese.  Or that being overweight has no impact on your health or quality of life.  Girls grow up thinking they may be the next Beyonce with a husband like Jay-Z  or Gabourey Sidibe with a bucket of KFC

It is my hope that we can increase awareness of how blacks are portrayed, identify what companies are reinforcing negative stereotypes, boycott their products and ultimately, change their advertising campaigns and products that they promote to blacks. Yes, it is a big order, but as President Obama repeatedly told us, "YES WE CAN', and we did!  This week the First Lady, Michelle Obama was the featured speaker at the NAACP Conference in Kansas City and  presented her major concerns with childhood obesity, and what children are being fed in schools, home, and fast food restaurants.  Her mantra is "LET'S MOVE".  I believe we can.
Let us support Michelle Obama and her efforts to improve our health as much as we supported President Obama.


Thanks for reading this, I will continue to update this blog with the growing awareness, education, and progress that will take place, along with your observations and suggestions for the family or the country.  


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