July 1, 2010; Source: AlterNet.com | This blog picks up on a theme we have been following in the Nonprofit Newswire for a while: the relationship between fast food companies and anti-obesity efforts. Some companies are trying hard to insert themselves into the anti-obesity dialogue as fellow-concerned citizens with such persistence that their incursions have to be successful sometimes—monkeys and typewriters matched to big PR budgets.
This blog picks up on the fact that the latest report from the Trust for America’s Health on rates of obesity contains a two-page “personal perspective” statement of concern by Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo’s CEO. The blog discusses the way TFAH justified the inclusion and the field’s response to it. TFAH publishes the annual report in collaboration with its funder, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that, since 2007, has put $500 million in grants into anti-obesity programs.
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The whole situation prompted Melanie Warner, a reporter at BNET to publish an article succinctly entitled “Obesity Report Chronicles the Sad State of America’s Waistline: and Tells Us How Great PepsiCo is.” Need I say more about how this should serve as a cautionary tale?—Ruth McCambridge
