That is evidently what it says on a new billboard set up in Jacksonville by PETA.
It shows a fat woman on the beach. Or should I say, which is what journalists are saying, a "plus-sized woman". No, a fat chick, actually.
Here:
Evidently, people are "shocked" and "offended". Why?
Someone has even Twittered ""Save the Whales-Loose the Blubber" billboard campaign targeting overweight women. It's insulting. SHAME ON YOU PETA!" Again, why on earth is it insulting?
What IS insulting is that the billboard is comparatively ugly and not very nicely designed. Plus, of course, the fact that it doesn't make a lot of sense. I don't think that it has ever been categorically proved that a vegetarian diet will make you loose weight, has it?
Yes, if you give up burgers and steaks and chops and sausages and eat only cabbage and celery, you'll loose weight - I guarantee it. But if you give up meat and eat pastries and cakes and pizzas and ice cream instead it's more than likely that you won't. And how exactly does becoming vegetarian save the bloody whales anyway? (No, I know that's not what the goal of the ad is, which makes the whole thing even dafter).
So it's not offensive; it's not shocking - it's just daft and badly thought out.
In advertising, shocking can be great. Remember the Benetton campaign in the eighties and nineties? That was fantastic, everyone was talking about it BECAUSE the billboards WERE shocking.
But a fat bird on a beach?
I know that in today's politically correct society I must not discriminate against people because of their race, creed, color, age, disability blah blah blah and now I must be politically correct about fat people? Can I still say 'fat'? Or is that another unmentionable F word?
I'm not a young person, I'm English, I have red hair, but I'm not ageist, racist or gingerist. Do I get offended by companies advertising Old Kentucky, English muffins (whatever they are) or ginger beer? I don't have any hangups about being old, English and gingery - so why would I be offended?
Why do fat people get offended? They ARE fat after all, it's not as though they're being insulted for being something they're not. Could it possibly be that they don't actually WANT to be fat? Could they be embarrassed about being fat?
Look, it's a bad ad. Someone was clever though, that's for sure. Someone at PETA or their ad agency realized that the ad WOULD offend and therefore get publicity (well, I'm writing about it for one thing) but it could have achieved the same effect in a much, much better way, I think.
Some people need to get a life. Or a nice vegetarian lunch.
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