The Use of Stigmatizing Messaging in Anti-Obesity Communications Campaigns: Quantification of Obesity Stigmatization

Abstract

Weight stigma may contribute to stress, binge eating, and suicidal ideation. Public health campaigns may perpetuate weight stigma; however, the prevalence of stigmatizing tactics in campaign messages is unknown. This study quantified the extent to which obesity-prevention campaigns in the U.S. include stigmatizing elements in print materials. A content analysis of all print advertisements (

N = 182 posters) derived from 25 obesity-prevention campaigns shows 13.2% included stigmatizing elements. These stigmatizing advertisements were found in almost half (44%) of the 25 obesity-prevention campaigns analyzed. Further research is needed to establish the prevalence of stigmatizing messaging across mediums and message effects.

Keywords:

• Campaigns
• Obesity
• Social Marketing
• Stigma
• Stigmatizing Tactics

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by authors.

Notes

1. We did not use the terms “public health” and “intervention” to avoid weight loss interventions such as the diabetes prevention program or Weight Watchers™.

2. Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, was chosen as it is the second best rated search engine on the market and is considered a large search engine.

3. Health education was defined as an intervention with the sole purpose of informing and educating participants but did not have attitude change goals. If the campaign included a call to action, it was considered persuasive.

4. If an ad included the term “morbidly obese” the coders were trained to not double code it for also including the word “obese”. No ad included the term “morbidly obese”.

5. In this study, non-stigmatizing means an absence of the tactics coded in our analysis. Smith (2007a) distinguished stigmatizing frames with challenge frames, but we did not code for challenge frames.

6. Notably, the units of analysis (the poster) are not independent from their campaign. Thus, the interdependence created by the higher order structure (campaign) could create biases in results. This is a limitation to the analysis.