ITV- The Consumers Complaint List-In the Public Domain

Dear Sir/Madam

On Tuesday (8.1.02) I tuned in to the Fat Club showed on ITV at 8.30 and thought it was a terribly sad programme. What is our society coming to that treats people like criminals just because they are over –weight. I thought the so called experts of the Fat Club were absolute bullies especially the American gentleman who looked like he had just come straight out of one of America Military Forces, and why was he wearing that ridiculous hat? Was he a Yogi Bear Park Ranger or a Highway Patrol Person in a previous life? To expect such large people to perform such high levels of exercise was absolutely ridiculous, I was expecting one of them to have a heart attack. They were treated like guinea pigs by a bunch of egotists who were looking to inflate their own self worth at their victims’ expense.

I took my hat off to the lady who only lost two pounds and said when I look in the mirror I see a beautiful confident woman and decided to leave at the first opportunity. I have never witnessed such intimidating and humiliating behaviour by so called experts. There is no way this type of behaviour encourages people to lose weight on the contrary, it makes people feel like they are second class citizens and only encourages their image of worthlessness.

I think ITV and other types of media should stop victimising innocent people and start looking at the real villains in this world.

S. Reeve

Editorial Comments

I agree with the original letter. This is symptomatic of the trivialisation of people and their lives that TV tries to market as reality TV. Losing weight is a personal issue and the tactics used in this programme are aimed at the titillating masses who cannot create their own entertainment and feel a need to witness the efforts of others. The only reason they watch is to see the failures of others. Ian Davison...22 February 2002
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I also agree with the original letter here. I think that the mental and psycholgical aspects of why some of the people were overweight was completely overlooked. In particular with Rik Waller who obviously has very deep rooted issues regarding the bullying he endured. The so called 'experts' seem to expect everyone to be as slim and fit as them and they looked down their noses at those who are even slightly overweight. Sorry ITV, but this program was made in really bad taste!
Deborah Foster..4 December 2002
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Complaints about television programmes and advertising can be referred to the Broadcasting Standards Commission (www.bsc.org.uk) or the Independent Television Commission (www.itc.org.uk), both of which operate formal processes and have powers to enforce action on broadcasters in respect of a complaint.
Martin Bucknall ..8 November 2003