Annemarie Quill: Obese playing victims hard to swallow

It is easier for the overweight and obese to adopt a victim role rather than take responsibility for their own bodies and health, says Annemarie Quill.

In the war against obesity, the fat army is winning.

A weight-loss campaign in Britain featuring bikini-clad Australian model Renee Somerfield is causing a furore with billboards defaced, and a petition to ban the adverts by "body-image campaigners", which has garnered more than 70,000 signatures.

The petition organisers claim the business behind the ads, Protein World, is "directly targeting individuals, aiming to make them feel physically inferior to the unrealistic body image of the bronzed model, in order to sell their product", and that "perhaps not everyone's priority is having a 'beach body' ... making somebody feel guilty for not prioritising it by questioning their personal choices is a step too far".

Defending its campaign, Protein World has hit back at the protest. "We are a nation of sympathisers for fatties," a spokesman for Protein World tweeted to one user after she signed the change.org petition calling for the removal of the advert. "Why make your insecurities our problem?"

I agree. It is easier for the overweight and obese to adopt a victim role rather than take responsibility for their own bodies and health.

A gym chain here has similarly come under fire by the Advertising Standards Authority for an advert deemed "likely to cause offence to most people as it ridiculed people who were overweight".

The gym apologised for any offence but also defended the campaign's intentions, pointing out "inactivity was deadly and needed to be addressed urgently".

This is true. As is overeating and consumption of excessive sugar that leads to obesity.

Recent research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine said calorie-laden diets now generated more ill health than physical inactivity, alcohol and smoking combined.

While it is wrong to humiliate another individual, if we do not take a radical stance towards obesity we are heading towards a costly health crisis. There is plenty of help out there for the overweight and obese.

Claiming the victim status is perhaps an excuse to stay on the couch eating.

New Zealand is the third-most obese nation in the OECD and, since 2006, our rate has increased from 27 per cent of the population to 31 per cent.

One in three school children is obese or overweight and more than one-third are inactive.

The New Zealand Medical Association has called for the Government to do more to tackle obesity, with suggested measures such as a tax on sugary drinks, more protection of children from the marketing of unhealthy foods, traffic light food labelling and a ban on fast-food outlets near schools.

So far the Government has resisted all these measures but this year, Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said a review of health targets could mean a new look at obesity control.

As well as the impact on our population's health, our growing bodies are eating up cash.

The only New Zealand study on the economic cost of obesity estimated excess bodyweight reduced national productivity by $98 million to $225 million in 2006, on top of health care costs of $624 million, reported the New Zealand Herald.

As far as public awareness campaigns go, the Government has taken a soft approach to obesity compared with the shock tactics used against smoking and drink-driving.

It is hard losing weight but the protest against the Beach Ready adverts seems to me fuelled not by a lofty notion of body image, but good old-fashioned jealousy.

Seeing a slim woman towering over you from a billboard while you're chowing down your chocolate muffin is a message that is hard to swallow, but that needs to be digested.- Annemarie Quill is a Bay of Plenty Times jounalist.