Yoplait pulls Commercial said to be promoting Eating Disorders

Watch this commercial and tell me what you think.

NEDA, the National Eating Disorders Association said that the redheaded woman’s thoughts are exactly the thoughts of what goes through a girl’s mind with an ED. She labels food as good or bad and then over time, all foods just end up moving into the bad category so that there is nothing left to eat.

I see a few things happening here:

– I think that this will raise people’s awareness about eating disorders so that we can spot and prevent unhealthy behaviors…

– I think that the extra press that Yoplait has gotten from their ad is great for their business…

– I also think that those things go through my head too when I look at food!

Now listen here. I do not have an ED or know anyone that does (so please excuse me if I say anything that offends you) but when I first saw the commercial I didn’t really think much of it. After doing some research on the buzz around this Yoplait ad, I now understand the sensitivities of the matter. To the younger more easily influenced audience, there could be danger.

But as most of us in the healthy living and fitness community know, making smart food choices is more than 1/2 the battle to losing fat and getting fit. What’s going through that girl’s head is basically a food journal – something that a lot of trainers recommend. Write down what you ate, how much you worked out, and if you have a deficit of calories then you can pretty much be ensured that you’re on your way to weight loss. It’s a calculation in the simplest explanation. (I said “simplest explanation”. We can talk more about the whole cals in cals out complexity later!)

So to me, naturally, I related. It did not bother me. Also love strawberry cheesecake, so the commercial kept me fairly engaged. I think that pulling the ad was more of a way to “make a statement” for NEDA. I don’t object to it though because it brings light to possible symptoms of an anorexic or bulimic. However, I also don’t think the writers of the commercial studied ED behaviors for a couple of weeks to write the script for the scene. No bad intentions. Either way, Yoplait didn’t get jipped in my opinion. I think they won. FREE buzz.

This ad reminded me of the way a lot of us women look at food nowadays. Even me. As we become more educated with nutrition, healthy living, and fitness, we gain the knowledge AND power to make the right decisions for ourselves.

For some of us, it is a way to make healthier choices.

For others, a daily weight loss struggle.

And for the remaining, NEDA pulled the ad for you.