I subscribe to numerous daily press and media alerts. Today I received one in my mailbox that really upset me. In the daily email alerts from Reporter Connection, they start off each listing with a message from one of the founders, Steve Harrison. Today’s listing said this:
“Eat chocolate and lose weight” is a great example of a statement that is counterintuitive. It goes against the grain of a common belief. People will want an explanation, and they’ll stick around to hear it. Before your next media interview or speaking engagement, come up with five counterintuitive statements that will intrigue your audience. Rehearse them on someone outside your field of expertise and see if they say, “Really? How does that work?” Then, you’ve got a winner.
~Steve Harrison
I immediately fired off a response:
Dear Steve,
You said: ”“Eat chocolate and lose weight” is a great example of a statement that is counterintuitive. It goes against the grain of a common belief. People will want an explanation, and they’ll stick around to hear it.”REALLY? “Eat chocolate and lose weight” is an outright lie – you and I both know that – , and given the obesity epidemic in this country, I think this is an incredibly irresponsible way to entice your media audience. Statements like this from the media are a large contributor to the problem, and as someone who’s struggled with obesity for most of her life, I find this “teaser” from you a real problem as far as credibility.
You miss his point. As a public speaking strategy, it’s completely valid. Counter-intuitive or outrageous statements DO grab attention. Where you go with that attention in the course of a presentation is up to you.
I didn’t miss his point. While I understand that’s the case, I also think it’s irresponsible of the media to perpetuate that kind of thinking. Now granted, I’m particularly sensitive to the topic of obesity and stigma in the media, but the reality is that the country has an obesity epidemic and thought processes and statements like this have to change. Particularly in a situation like this where it’s headlining to literally tens of thousands of reporters and media members.
You’ve given me an idea for a blog post that will be just for you.
This is one of those things where… well, it’s tough. You CAN eat chocolate and lose weight. Hell, you could eat nothing but chocolate and manage to lose weight.
Is it healthy? well, a bit of dark chocolate, even every day, as part of an overall healthy life style (including eating healthy, a decent level of activity, etc)… yea, eating chocolate has some health benefits.
But at the same time, I can see your point Taunia… and pretty much agree. Perpetuation of the sort of message this puts out there is not a good thing. I’ve got a number of PR types that I follow on Twitter, wonder what their thoughts on something like this would be.