always having the wrong reaction

This billboard--yes, you would see this driving down the street--is from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, who advocate a vegan diet and are targeting dairy products as a major contributor to body size.

I think we're supposed to be appalled by the butt, but all I could think was--wow, what a fabulous ass. Plus the hands squeezing the hips add to the overtly sexual nature of the image. I guess it's supposed to be a doctorly squeeze of the fat, though.

Are fat bodies so devoid of sexuality in the minds of the advertising agency/PCRM that this image is in their minds completely clinical? And can be used--negatively--to shame people? PCRM must think so, but the billboard that resulted is a bizarre kinky mess of shame, sex, hate, and dehumanization. They don't know what they're doing.

p.s. Some vegans are fat. Just sayin.
p.p.s. Thanks to The Society Pages for the article above (worth clicking).

"Fat Girls As Useful Life Accessories"

The Society Pages/Jezebel calls out this Mentos ad (click for larger image), which has the caption: "I love hanging out with you. All the boys keep looking at me."

It's part of an ad campaign for Mini Mentos with the tag line "Mentos Single Pack / Selfishness Without Guilt." Here are two other ads from the campaign I found (click to see larger images):









L:
"I just got fired."
"Can I keep your stapler?")

R:
"He's not worth crying for. Do you want to sleep at my place?"

So that is the context for these ads: a campaign that winks at bad--selfish--human behavior with cute(sy), Gorey-lite illustrations. The top one sure is weird, as well as even meaner, when you look at all the ads; the fat girl is like a toy doll--she's tiny and freakish (and voiceless) as well as shaped like an umbrella. I think what bothers me most of all is the casual assumption of sameness here: that we all could/would/do behave like this, and the way, as Lauren McGuire writes, that the drawing "makes fat and skinny people seem like members of different species." The only people given voice are thin. Always with the Other.