What's the Worst 'Badvertisement'?
Burger King, Hummer, and TGI Friday’s Vie for Least Healthful Ad in Online Poll; TV Spots Exploit Male Insecurity, Dare Men to Risk Their Health
WASHINGTON – Doctors are decrying a new trend in television commercials that dare men to show their “manliness” by eating unhealthful foods. A Burger King ad links masculinity to burgers, TGI Friday’s mocks a guy who eats broccoli, and a Hummer is portrayed as a manhood-restoring car for a tofu-buying man who wants to measure up to meat-eaters.
Two-thirds of American men are overweight, more than one-third will die of heart disease, and nearly half will develop cancer. Doctors and dietitians from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) hold that the ads—promoting fat- and cholesterol-laden foods—increase these risks. In a new online poll, PCRM asks visitors to its Web site (www.PCRM.org) to fight back by watching the three commercials and voting on which one sends the worst health message.
“This new genre of TV ads is tantamount to daring men to smoke or abuse alcohol,” said PCRM dietitian Susan Levin, M.S., R.D. “There is nothing comical about a coronary.”
In America and developed countries around the world, rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity have reached unprecedented levels. Strong evidence suggests that healthy diets may even help prevent heart disease and many forms of cancer from striking in the first place.
Poll results will be announced on PCRM’s Web site. For more information or an interview with Susan Levin, M.S., R.D., please contact Edith Sodolo at 202-686-2210, ext. 339, or esodolo@pcrm.org.
Founded in 1985, the Physicians
Committee for Responsible
Medicine is a nonprofit
health organization that
promotes preventive medicine,
especially good nutrition.
PCRM also conducts clinical
research studies, opposes
unethical human experimentation,
and promotes alternatives
to animal research.
Physicians
Committee for Responsible Medicine
5100 Wisconsin Ave., N.W.,
Ste. 400, Washington, DC 20016
Phone: 202-686-2210 | E-mail: pcrm@pcrm.org |
