New York’s “Pouring on the Pounds” subway ad. New York City’s government has declared war on soda — oops, “sugar-sweetened beverages.” While Mayor Michael Bloomberg would love to pass a controversial penny-per-ounce soda tax, his government isn’t waiting around for the windfall to start discouraging residents from popping open a pop. In New York, almost 6 out of 10 adults are overweight or obese, and 4 out of 10 kids in public school are.
The city’s Health Department has launched the second video in its “Pouring On the Pounds” campaign, which includes some pretty eye-catching subway ads (like the one at right). Americans are now ingesting 200 to 300 more calories each day than we did 30 years ago, says the Health Department, nearly half of them from sugar-sweetened drinks — there are as many as 16 packets of sugar in a 20-ounce bottle and 26 packets in a 32-ounce serving.
The ads are based on the premise that if “you wouldn’t eat it, don’t drink it.” The video makes that point graphically:
Of course, in a world where restaurants manage to sell this and this, maybe they’re overestimating us.
And here’s the Department’s first video, making the point that a soda a day can add 10 pounds of fat in a year. Warning, it is pretty stomach-turningly gross:
