"Rewind the Future"

          Recently, a controversial anti-obesity video ad pulled the internet into a state of chaos. The different viewers have their own perspective about the video. The ad was entitled “Rewind the Future” and was created by Srong4Life and uploaded to the online video-sharing site YouTube.

Here’s the video ad from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Strong4life:

(Source: Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Strong4Life. (2013, September 10). Rewind the future. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jcr3WOkL_1w

          In the video, they used a first person perspective, which made me feel that I am the one acting on the video. This style made me feel, somehow, what the person starred in the video was feeling. The speed of the transition from one video clip to another, plus the sound effect of a man heavily breathing makes it breath-taking advertisement (literally). The creator of the video ad also used the “flashback” effect, which made the title “Rewind the Future” fit the video perfectly. Here are some print screens arranged in order from the video that proves that it used the “flashback” effect:

1] Scene from the operating room due to heart attack.

2] Scene showing the problem (Unhealthy eating) which led to the person’s ailment.

3] Scene showing that the root cause of the person’s unhealthy eating habit is the way how he was spoiled by his mother.

          The message that the ad leaves, for me, is to change some of the parenting habits that most parents are doing today. The common knowledge is that, when a baby is crying, one must give anything that the baby likes in order to stop the tantrums. But this is a wrong kind of thinking! The things that one do to baby can gravely affect the baby’s future. Once the baby grows up, he/she has the tendency to bring with him/her the ways that he/she learned when he/she was still a baby. For the video’s case, it was the unhealthy way of eating that the main person has brought from his baby years until the time that he grew up.

          Other people might find the video a little offending because, back at the last part of the video, the scene at the operating room was once again flashed, together with the words: “Your child’s future doesn’t have to look like this.”

Here’s a proof:

          Stating a line like that, while having an over-sized man in the background can be offending to some people because, in some way, the advertisement carries some form of discrimination with it. It sends a message to the audience like: “If you are over-sized, you will have a devastated future.”

          Strong4Life is a movement known for fighting the epidemic of child obesity. So, I think, Strong4Life’s purpose of creating this ad is to create a better future for the children who are at risk of obesity, by trying to change their wrong eating habits and lifestyles as early as possible, which can help them avoid the impending diseases associated with being over-weight.