They were testing TV and print ads for their new campaign Lose Weight. Gain Life.
Most of the people providing feedback were overweight, and everyone had to talk about whether the ads would make them change their lifestyle and start losing weight.
They played the tv ad and we watched a obese man and his daughter go through milestones together then she holds her dads hand while he's in hospital, then he dies and we watch the daughter get married without her dad by her side.
It was actually quite emotional.
The first hurdle I saw in this ad was that they were using an obese man in the commercial.
I felt it would not be relatable to the general public as he would be perceived as an extreme case.
So when the public saw him lying in a hospital bed recovering from a stroke, it would be easy to say 'well that's not me, I'm just not that fat'.
As the group sat their discussing each ad, it became clear that not one of them thought they were overweight.
I guess I always thought you had to be morbidly obese to be susceptible to these diseases, but just by being in the overweight category, you are at a higher risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes and some forms of cancer, like breast and bowel.
The last ad shown to the group was a print ad for a magazine. It had 5 fairly regular looking men and women standing in a line with the headline 'Which of these people are overweight?' Then at the bottom was written 'All of them'.
The room of people went quietly into shock.... Then denial.
One woman pointed out that these men and women looked perfectly healthy, that it wasn't fair to pick on these people as they're normal, healthy people. I think she missed the point altogether.
After much discussion it was decided that this print ad was the most effective of all that were shown. It got through to this group that you don't have to be ridiculously overweight to be at risk of cancer and disease.
The world has changed it's perception of overweight people recently, and there's been a movement from the 'fat is lazy' attitude to 'big is beautiful'.
There's nothing wrong with this, people come in all shapes and sizes, but we forget that just because you're happy in your skin, it doesn't mean you will avoid the diseases caused by being overweight.
Obesity is a pretty sensitive issue, and it's something we don't talk about because we have accepted the image of overweight people and are more frequently rejecting the image of stick thin models.
No one seems to have an issue reminding a smoker that cigarettes are killing them. Yet to tell someone they're going to have a heart attack if they eat another pizza is not a done thing.
I'm not saying it should be, and I'm not saying everyone needs to be on a strict clean eating diet. I think it would just be good to identify if there is a health issue then work out to what extent you want to do something about it.
It's a hard one to discuss really because someone will be reading this thinking 'I'm overweight, I eat well, I feel healthy and I like the way I look.'
There are others who are in the healthy weight range who eat fast food daily and don't exercise.
So there's a huge fuzzy grey area when it comes to obesity, but if we all politely side step around the issue, obesity will keep claiming lives.
Currently, Australia is one of the fattest countries in the world, with 2 out of 3 people being overweight.
Obesity is currently costing tax payers $58 BILLION dollars a year, wouldn't it be nice if we could spend that money elsewhere?? (this is not a typo!)
Below is a BMI calculator to see where you come in on the weight scale. Are your results different to what you were expecting?
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