Monday, January 11, 2010

Controversial Ad

Here it is....


NYC Health department anti-soda ad titled "Are you putting on the Pounds?"

The beverage industry fired back that their products doe not contain fat. But the truth is (and any diabetic can tell you) it's about the carbs.
Your body converts extra/unneeded carbs to fat.

What does 65 pounds of sugar have to do with you??

This is the amount of sugar consumed if a person drinks only one can of soda a day for one year. Visualize over 16 four-pound bags of sugar stacked up. Add to this the amount of sugar commonly consumed from other food sources. The amount is staggering!

We all know drinking too much soda is probably not good for our health, but few of us consistently choose a healthier alternative. Here are some facts about soda that may inspire you to make some changes in your family's choice of beverages.

Question: Will I gain weight by drinking soda?

Answer: You will certainly add extra calories to your diet. A 12-ounce soda contains 10-12 teaspoons of sugar. Sugar content is listed in "grams" on the label. Four grams equal one teaspoon of sugar

Grab the nearest can of non-diet soda you can find and read the sugar content. It will probably contain around 40 grams of sugar which is the equivalent of 10 teaspoons. Those 10 teaspoons add about 150 calories to your diet. On a 2,000 calorie daily diet, with no other changes to your activity level, you could easily gain up to 15 pounds over a year. It is common to purchase soda in a 20-ounce, 44-ounce, or even 64-ounce size container and sip throughout the day.

Soda is an empty calorie offender. We need to be able to care for ourselves, and keep an eye on what our kids drink-- especially when lots of restaurants are giving ridiculously huge servings of soda in "supersized" offerings.

Although I do drink diet soda, I find the aspirtame makes me feel more thirsty.

I have taken to keeping a large glass pitcher of water in the refrigerator. It really does satisfy the thirst.

Those who commissioned this ad said we are a visual society.... they could say the words, but having this graphic with the gross fat, makes the point in a stronger way.

I think it is a great ad. If it stirs up controversy, than the ad is working!

2 comments:

nonnie9999 said...

i understand the point being made, but i don't think it's a very good ad. the reason i say that is that it's just too disgusting to watch. i guess they wanted to shock the senses, but there's an effective way to do that and an ineffective way. i don't think it's very effective when nobody will want to watch it. if they had made it funny, it would have been making the rounds at youtube, and a lot more people would have seen it. i don't see anyone emailing their friends telling them that they have to watch this ad.

Fran said...

I saw it on the news yesterday- it just came out Dec 14 or that was posted on you tube....]
it's got 519,989 views & I see 3 other of the same with 4,000, 7,000 & 8,000 hits So 538,989 people have checked it out.

It's totally gross-- no argument there... but with the music & graphic demo, I think it is an attention grabber. It sure makes it's point- albeit in a disgusting way.

But for a society w an obesity epidemic, and fast food giving out swimming pool sized "buckets of soda", we all need to be aware of the empty calories soda brings.

Anyway, they clearly made the commercial & their point.