Or not... This month, Colruyt Belgium published a special "back to school" advertising folder. Unfortunately, what looks like a desperate failed attempt at being "cool" will definitely make a "bad buzz".
While the EU Commission estimates that about 7% of national healthcare budgets are devoted to treating diseases linked to obesity and while 1 in 3 kids aged 6 to 9 years old are overweight (2010 statistics), advertising and selling lunchboxes which read "Fuck your Diet" with the image of a huge double deck burger seems quite irresponsible to say the least.
Far from advocating for absolute political correctness and deny children that are overweight the right to self-esteem, these lunchboxes basically say "fuck health, who cares".
Childhood obesity is a growing concern. Voluntary initiatives under the auspices of the European Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health doesn't seem to have a statistical impact on the number of overweight children. The problem is bad enough with the sheer availability of unhealthy food and advertising for excessively sugary, salty or greasy foods, selling and advertising merchandise which advocates for irresponsible dieting will just make things worse.
For more information on the EU Action Plan on Childhood Obesity 2014-2020 see here:
For more information about COFACE's initiative on educating parents and teachers about advertising (Nutri-médias) see here:
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