OK. I have my advocacy pants on again, and they’re on fire!
PCRM, Physician’s Commitee for Responsible Medicine (really?) just started running this offensive ad, allegedly to encourage more people to become Vegan. In the ad, PCRM manages to encourage both weight stigma and sexism! See what you think.
I just had to let them know how I felt!
On Friday, March 30, 2012, I wrote this to PCRM:
Subject: Please become more informed
Dear Dr. Barnard and PCRM,
I’m writing to encourage you and your organization to consider the following research. Surely you can find more accurate and clever ways to promote being a Vegan without spewing weight bias and inaccurate information about BMI risk? (Please see attached studies using large samples.)
BMI and Mortality; Results from a National Longitudinal Study of Canadian Adults
BMI and All-Cause Mortality Among Japanese Adults
As I’m sure you know, numerous studies have shown Doctor’s bias toward people of size. Is that what we’re seeing in your latest tongue and cheek ” Sit Next to a Vegan “ campaign?
Best,
Ellen Shuman
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Ellen Shuman
Founder/Coach; A Weigh Out Life Coaching and Membership Circle,
President BEDA;Binge Eating Disorder Association,
Co-Chair; Academy for Eating Disorders “Health at Every Size” SIG
www.aweighout.com
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The same day, PCRM responded:
Dear Ms. Shuman,
Thank you for contacting PCRM. We appreciate your taking the time to view our ad and share your comments. I have passed your letter on to members of our communications and membership departments, and they carefully review all comments and take them into consideration. I’ve sent the attached PDFs to our nutrition department for their review. Your feedback is important to us.
The intention behind PCRM’s most recent ad, directed toward American Airlines, was to highlight a particularly positive benefit of the vegan diet – weight management. The video was not intended to offend those who are overweight. Certainly, there is no value in blaming overweight people for a condition that results from a mixture of industry marketing, government promotions, addictive qualities of foods, genetic vulnerabilities, medication effects on appetite, and, in the end, overeating. Instead, it is essential to zero in on the problem foods, expose them, and do what we can to get them off our plates.
We sincerely appreciate your feedback and hope that you will continue to share your thoughts with us in the future. Should you have any further comments or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best regards,
Emily Price, Membership Assistant
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Here’s My Response to That (Note…I’ll take on their “problem foods” strategy at another time…it’s way too simplistic):
Thanks for your response, Emily. I’m glad my concerns will be further considered! We look forward to further comment from PCRM.
In your email, you wrote, “The video was not intended to offend those who are overweight.” How could your video NOT offend those who are overweight. Your video actually encourages weight stigma. Very disturbing that PCRM [private_membership circle]does not see that. My professional community has been posting about this for two days now…we all hope you will consider removing the offensive “commercial” from your website.
An invitation… should PCRM ever have interest in leading an initiative to reduce weight stigma among physicians, a proven barrier to people of size seeking needed medical care, please feel free to contact me. Here’s some additional information about Weight Stigma in Health Care, click here.
For more about Weight Stigma, in general, please visit the Binge Eating Disorder Association’s website about Weight Stigma. http://bedaonline.com/WSAW/index.html
Based on what I read on your website, about your mission, your commitment to ethics in healthcare and medical research, wouldn’t helping physicians provide ethical care to the large percentage of overweight and obese people in this country be more in line with your organization’s goals than a campaign that actually ended up bullying fat people?
Best,
Ellen
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I’ll let you know if I hear back…
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Ellen Shuman is a Life Coach who specializes in empowering people who are working on emotional and binge eating recovery. She is the founder of A Weigh Out & Acoria Eating Disorder Treatment, President of the Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA), and Co-Chair of the Academy for Eating Disorders Special Interest Group on “Health at Every Size”, ellen@aweighout.com [/private_membership circle]
