Something has come up at work and I am unable to do this phone call today. But in thinking about it further, I think the show itself is the best evidence of our intentions and approach. So I think it’s best if you can tune in to “The Biggest Loser” on January 6 to see that the kid participants on the show will follow an age-appropriate program that emphasizes getting healthy rather than numbers on a scale. As you’ll see, the kids are handled with great care, support and encouragement to help them live a healthier lifestyle. Thank you.
It turns out that she had offered to have calls with a number of people who had similar concerns, which she also cancelled. It also turns out that her e-mail to me is just a copy and paste of the public statement that TBL made about the concerns regarding the kids. She deleted all of her Twitter exchanges with those who have concerns. My guess is that she is has so thoroughly drank the “the is a good idea Kool-Aid” that she honestly could not believe there was a backlash. I do find it disconcerting that, despite a number of people asking, she never produced any evidence for her intervention’s safety or efficacy, even though that she repeatedly claims in the media that her program has a “proven 96 percent success rate” Marketing people throw the word “proven” around a lot, of course one would hope that no person of science, for example a medical doctor, would do so, especially when kids’ health is at stake. People trust medical doctors and so when they toss around words like “proven” people tend to assume that they are speaking as a scientist, and not a PR and marketing firm. Maybe I just missed the statistically significant, replicated studies printed in a peer-reviewed journal? I don’t know because, like every other request for evidence that people made to her, Joanna failed to produce anything.
What isn’t in her e-mail is that they are trying to call their inclusion of kids on the show “bravery” for talking “about something that nobody else is talking about”. Executive producer Lisa Hennessy called it a necessary first step in starting a national dialog about childhood obesity. So I have to ask, how pissed off is Michelle Obama right now? She has made her entire stint as First Lady about focusing on the weight of children, even unbelievably. calling Biggest Loser contestants good role models for kids, and here comes TBL taking credit like nobody has ever put the words childhood and obesity together before.
And not for nothing but is Lisa Hennessy the Executive Producer of Fantasy Land? I just Googled childhood obesity and got “about 9,990,000 results in 0.25 seconds”. Let’s review: they have a self-described “childhood obesity specialist” who refuses to share proof of efficacy and safety for an intervention being used on kids, and meanwhile is absolutely shocked that there is a backlash against putting kids on a show where people dehydrate themselves to the point of urinating blood to lose weight so that they can win money; and we have an Executive Producer who doesn’t know that she got scooped 9,990,000 times and wants credit for being brave and starting a discussion about a subject that nobody can shut up about. Yes, these are people with whom we should entrust children. (Sarcasm meter is a 10 out of 10 here)
This would be hilarious if it wasn’t tragic because, don’t forget, they put freaking KIDS on a show where people dehydrate themselves to the point of urinating blood to lose weight so that they can win money, while their trainers emotionally abuse them and insist that they ignore the advice of doctors and dieticians (another reason why I don’t think having a doctor on the show for the kids means that they are safe.) Not to worry they tell us, they would NEVER treat kids the way they treat adults. And if that’s the case, shouldn’t it give us pause? I would wager that, given the laws for working with animals, they wouldn’t treat a group of dogs like the treat the adults – because it would be against the law to treat animals that way.
They also tell us that, for the kids, is just about healthy habits and not weight loss. The pictures of the kids wearing “The Biggest Loser” shirts with tape measures on them makes me think that this is unlikely. Also, it’s not just these three kids I’m worried about. It’s the fact that no matter how they treat the kids, if you want to see them you have to watch the rest of the show. A show which, in the first 30 minutes of the season premiere, had contestants vomiting, falling off the treadmill, and one requiring paramedics, while so-called trainers shrieked at them that they are weak and need to keep going. Quick honey, come in here and bring the kids – we don’t want them to miss these role models for health (and the sarcasm just keeps on coming.)
Does anyone remember Lisa Simpsons “Just Don’t Look” campaign to get the scary homicidal advertising mascots to stop. Yeah, that’s an option here: Stop watching The Biggest Loser. Stop patronizing their sponsors. Stop being part of this problem. You can click here to see the list of sponsors and sign the petition to boycott The Biggest Loser.
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