Gamers risk early graves, claims advert
Health groups warn against inactive lifestyle
Young gamers have been targeted by a healthy lifestyle advertising campaign that implicitly connects videogaming with early death.
Charities the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and Diabetes UK, in partnership with the government, have published an ad that carries the headline “Risk an early death, just do nothing” above an image of a young boy holding a PlayStation controller.
The government-funded advert seems to link videogames and death
The advert states that “nine out of ten kids risk growing up to have unhealthy amounts of fat in their bodies” and that young’uns should be active for an hour a day.
The implication is clear: some kids are spending so much time sitting on their butts playing videogames that they're not getting exercise. Couple that with a dodgy diet rich in salt, sugar and saturated fat, and young gamers are heading for early graves, the ad suggests.
It’s interesting that the advertisers decided that the boy should be pictured holding a PlayStation controller, rather than a Wii Remote and Nunchuck. Some people believe that the Nintendo console, with its on-your-feet approach to gaming, can actually help you get active and lose weight.
Just try playing the boxing game for 30 minutes.
What’s your opinion about the advert? Is it fair? Perhaps you think kids playing videogames for three hours a day does indeed mean they’ll grow into pizza-scoffing lardarses? Let Register Hardware know. ®
COMMENTS
new advert - Bad parenting causes kids death !!
what a joke, now they are telling parents
"dont worry, your not to blame, for your kid being a fat lazy little B£$^"$*"
if parents let there kids play 7 hours of games everyday its hardly the game manufaturers fault..
Lazy parents breed lazy kids...
they need to expand the picture to the lazy mum and dad sitting on the sofa stuffing there faces,
then change the title to YOU ARE KILLING YOUR KIDS !!!
Doesn't seem that unreasonable...
There have been cases of people dying from spending an insane length of time playing games...
... plus children of that age (boy in the picture) are more prone to epilepsy than adults, and videogames (and some types of monitor; more rare now with LCD) can aggravate this...
... and it's a bit of a no-brainer, that sitting around all day will make you fat, even if you eat a reasonable diet, because you're not burning off the energy you've consumed. Not to mention the risk of deep-vein thromboses caused by sitting in the same position for hours at a time.
So it seems quite a good advert, really. And there are probably rules against a third party promoting Wii as a health aid while condeming the rest.
Stupid researchers...
I get the feeling little research goes into some of these scare campaigns. They decide on an outcome before they start.... Games make people fat - No they don't you morons... Eating too much does.
Oh, and if you're worried about your level of activity but don't really like the idea of the gym... Buy a Wii with Wii Sports. The tennis games really get you active.
False advertising?
I don't know if its just me thinking this, but it seems to advertise that video games will cause an early grave...
However, it seems to be that:
Video Games + Lots of fat + lots of salt + Lots of sugar + lack of healthy food + lack of vitamins + lack of any excercise + lack of good parenting = Early death
Yet this poster seems to suggest that video games is really the key!
May I also suggest deisning a poster which says "Reading causes an early grave". After all, book worms sit down and read for hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd love to hear the comeback on that?
Maybe its a desperate attempt to try and get young people out, but the scare tactic never works. Look at cigarette sales with the death warning on... It does not work, and for me its unethical.
Ridiculous poster. Ridiculous message from the poster. Not thought out at all, and attacking a generation rather than assisting or helping them develop.
Just my opinion though ;)
As opposed to...
getting knifed
run over by a car
or a train
or electrocuted on the 3rd rail
or falling out of a tree
or falling off a bike
or any of the other items in government scare stories!
