A Times Square billboard that promotes a fitness program has drawn the ire of activists and passersby who say its messaging is “blatantly fat phobic” and “toxic."
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The advertisement stationed at West 48th Street and 7th Avenue promotes wellness coach Deborah Capaccio’s fitness regimen.
“Feeling fat and lazy?” it reads, alongside a photo of Capaccio and the URL for her website, GetYourSparkleBackGirl.com.
The rhetoric and imagery on the billboard, however, didn’t sit well with actress Jameela Jamil or influencer and professional singer Matthew Anchel, among other critics.
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“This is a blatantly fat phobic and also quite ableist ad,” Jamil wrote on Instagram. “It bothers me to no end that we are still yet to recognize cruelty and offense to fat people as hate speech.”
“I was anorexic for 20 years because of adverts like these, and messaging like this, and I didn’t eat a meal for the majority of those two decades,” she added. “Do you think I had the energy to do anything? I couldn’t exercise, I couldn’t clean, I often couldn’t even brush my hair/teeth.”
Anchel, meanwhile, told the New York Post the billboard “really pissed me off, especially in a city that is supposed to be the center of acceptance and open-mindedness.”
Capaccio, for her part, told the Post she believed the billboard addressed “the silent epidemic that’s going on in women’s minds every day.”
“We identified as fat and lazy, and those thoughts were sabotaging our efforts to feel good about ourselves and get healthy,” she said.
“I expected some backlash, and was ready for it, especially the online abuse,” she added. “But I’m more disturbed by today’s culture where anything that causes discomfort or dissonance is considered taboo.”
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