Boycotting Advertisers

Biggest Loser’s Jillian Michaels is back, and this season’s Biggest Loser show is including three children (age 13 & 16). Teenagers now, and pre-teens later?

Many responsible people are opposed to this, for some really good reasons. See recent Blogs by Dr. Yoni Freedhoff at Weighty Matters. I’m passing on the information for those who might be interested. My take is, whether one likes the show or not, this is an exceptionally bad thing.
I’ve decided to join in on the boycott of advertisers.

This may be totally ineffective, but at this point it won’t be difficult for me, because I only use a couple of those on current list … Quaker Oats and Subway, but later in the season evidentally more advertisers will be added.  IF I’m thinking of selecting one of their products, I’ll just make an alternative choice. There are a lot of dieters out there, and if a large number participated in an advertising boycott, it could become noticable.

 Below is a quote from Dr. Freedhoff:

“Let's assume only the very best. … That none of the nonsense (both in terms of messaging and in terms of approach) the show typically throws at their adults trickles down to the kids. That all of the kids lose weight, improve their self-esteem, and develop healthy relationships with food. “

 "Simply being on the Biggest Loser puts these kids, regardless of their short and long term weight loss outcomes, at incredible risk of harm due to the pressures of simply being so completely in the public's eye, an eye which isn't kind to adults, let alone the public eye of young teenagers - an eye that's quite frankly is too often, and in the specific case of weight regularly, dramatically and inherently cruel.  Add to that the incredible statistical likelihood of regain and I'd say their involvement represents one hell of an injustice. “