The Department of Health's newest anti-obesity advertisement makes their last fat-in-a-cup subway ad seem mild.
As you may recall, in August the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene rolled out subway billboards that showed a soda bottle pouring globs of human fat into a drinking glass, with the intent of shocking New Yorkers into choosing low calorie beverages over soda and sweetened juices.
Now, they've gone one step further and put the ad in video form.
While those who saw the subway ad may have gagged at the thought of someone lifting the fat-filled glass and taking a sip, those who see the latest ad now are able to watch it happen.
The video, posted on YouTube and the Department of Health website, shows a smiling man pour a soda can full of fat into a large drinking glass and then chug down very realistic blobs of fat, which drip down his face.
The short clip appears again and again between bits of information about how many calories are in an average can of soda (300) and how many teaspoons of sugar can be found in a 20-ounce bottle of soda (16).
The grand finale gives viewers a sense of what ten pounds of fat look like, not on a human body, but on a dinner plate, in case we were wondering.
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Cathy Nonas, director of the Health Department's Physical Activity and Nutrition Program says the intent for both ads, was to do something "hard hitting."
"We've been wanting to call attention to a very real problem," she told NBCNewYork.com. "We did have a very small very graphic poster in the subways but we couldn't afford to bring it out as much as we wanted to."
The new YouTube ad was made possible by a small donation and is expected to make its way around the Internet for a fraction of the cost of the subway ads.
The campaign is part of a larger anti-obesity initiative that includes calorie-posting regulations, physical activity requirements at daycare centers, fruit and vegetable carts in under-served areas.
“Sugary drinks shouldn’t be a part of our everyday diets,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, New York City Health Commissioner. “This video is playful, but its message is serious. Sugar-sweetened beverages are fueling the obesity epidemic, and obesity is disabling millions of New Yorkers."
