NYC Health Department’s tactics as disgusting as their gross-out videos
New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley overruled three of his subordinates, including his chief nutritionist, while putting together a media campaign linking soda consumption to obesity, The New York Times reported yesterday. E-mails obtained by the newspaper under the state’s Freedom of Information Law show health officials had doubts about the premise of the city’s “Pouring on the Pounds” advertising campaign, which features gross images such as liquid fat pouring out of a soft drink bottle.
Sabira Taher, who holds a master’s degree in public health and is a campaign manager for health marketing for the department, wrote about her reservations in a July 1, 2009 email. “I think Dr. Farley really wants to say something about ‘gaining 15 pounds of fat in a year,’” she wrote. But “we know gaining and losing weight isn’t that cut and dry — some people can drink and eat whatever they want and still maintain their weight without doing an incredible amount of exercise to burn off the extra calories. I think going this route would raise a lot of skepticism within the public about our message.”
Still, the campaign was approved in a modified form, despite reservations from a professor they consulted that it was misleading because it didn’t mention changes in physical activity.
“It’s an example of how they made a decision to use these scare tactics against soft drinks, and the facts were not really relevant,” says ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. “Dr. Farley was going to go after soft drinks no matter what the facts were.”
“The message here is when the NYC Department of Health wants to get their message out, they will do so — no matter what scientific manipulation has to be committed,” says ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross. “I wonder how much of that they had to do to get the ban on trans fat passed?”
