Lihavuus ja laihduttaminen laihdutusmainonnassa ja vaikeasti lihavien ihmisten kokemana

Abstract

Lihavuus ja laihduttaminen laihdutusmainonnassa ja vaikeasti lihavien ihmisten kokemana

Arvellaan, että suomalaiset kuluttavat noin sata miljoonaa euroa vuodessa laihuuden markkinoilla. Laihdutustuotteille riittää ostajia, kun joka vuosi noin kolmasosa aikuisista naisista ja neljäsosa miehistä laihduttaa.

Väitöstutkimukseni kohdistui lihavuutta ympäröivään kulttuuriin. Laihdutusmainonnasta tarkasteltiin sitä, millaisia laihdutustuotteita sodanjälkeisessä Suomessa on mainostettu. Lisäksi haastateltiin vaikeasti lihavia (painoindeksi vähintään 35 kg/m²) ihmisiä ja kysyttiin heidän kokemuksiaan lihavana elämisestä ja käsityksiään heidän lihavuutensa syistä. Lisäksi selvitettiin, mitä vaikeasti lihavat naiset laihduttaessaan tavoittelivat.

Yksi tutkimuksen päätulos on, että laihdutuksen ihmetuotteita mainostettiin runsaasti ja niiden markkinoinnissa luvattiin painon nopeaa putoamista, ulkonäön kohentumista, tuotteen turvallisuutta ja luonnonmukaisuutta sekä näläntunteen puuttumista laihduttamisen aikana.

Vaikeasti lihavilla henkilöillä oli useita selityksiä lihavuudelleen. Tutkimuksessa löydettiin neljä selitysmallia, joiden mukaan lihavuus johtuu elintavoista, lääketieteellisistä, psyykkis-emotionaalisista tai sosiokulttuurisista syistä. Painonhallinnassa onnistuneiden henkilöiden lihavuusselityksille oli tyypillistä, että ne myötäilivät tieteellistä tietämystä lihavuuden aiheuttajista. Painonhallinnassa epäonnistuneiden käsityksissä lihavuuden kielteinen ja häpeällinen leima oli läsnä. Naisten haastatteluissa toiveella ulkonäön kohenemisesta oli korostunut merkitys. Toiveen laihtumisesta kauniimman vartalon ja viehättävämmän ulkonäön tähden esittivät kaikki naiset elämäntilanteesta, painosta ja iästä riippumatta.

Tutkimuksen perusteella on oletettavissa, ettei hoikkuuden ideaali ole murtumassa. Laihdutustuotteiden markkinointi hyödyntänee jatkossakin ihmisten kestotoivetta laihtua suuria määriä nopeasti, tehokkaasti, nälättömästi ja helposti. On tärkeää, että terveydenhuollossa potilaita tuetaan asettamaan realistisia laihtumistavoitteita eikä uskomaan laihdutustuotteiden ostohalukkuutta lisäävää mielikuvamarkkinointia ja ylimitoitettuja mainosväittämiä.

There are stereotypical ideas about overweight in the western culture that consider the fat people as weak-willed, uncontrolled, ill, neurotic, lazy, sad, evil, ignorant, and ugly. The negative associations related to being overweight are mostly directed at women.

The efforts of becoming free of excess weight have produced an industry whose revenue is difficult to assess. It is estimated that about one hundred million Euros is moving annually in the slenderness market in Finland. There are buyers for the weight loss products and programs as approximately one in three adult females and one in four males are dieting every year. The dieters are not always overweight or fat. Weight loss-oriented behaviour has also increased among those who are normal weight.

The goal of the present study was to provide new information about being overweight and about dieting. The study first focused on the weight-loss advertising. A widely circulated weekly family magazine, Seura, was studied to discover what kinds of weight-loss products were marketed in post-war Finland and what promises were included in the advertising. There were a total of 55 advertisements. The Internet advertising of the Weight Watchers and the clinics that provide liposuction (n=15) were studied to discover how the responsibility of the weight is allocated between the service provider and the purchaser.

Next, the study focused on the reasons for their overweight by the fat people. It was further investigated as to what the morbidly obese women were pursuing as they were dieting. A total of 44 working-aged patients from the outpatient clinic for persons with metabolic disorders, who took part in the clinic's weight loss group in the spring of 2002, participated in the study. Of the participants, 29 were women and 15 were men. All of them were morbidly obese (Body Mass Index at least 35 kg/m2). The visit with the clinic specialist (Fall 2001) was recorded, as well as the individual interview a year following the end of the weight loss groups (Spring 2003). The recordings were transcribed. The material for one person consisted 15 sheets of transcribed text on average.

Qualitative content analysis was used in analysing the study materials. This was done in order to attempt to understand the ideas and experiences about obesity as well as the culture represented by the weight-loss advertisements and by those who were so seriously overweight, or the aggregate of the meanings, values, and beliefs that the members of the community have collectively formed and assumed. The materials-centred analysis was directed by the social constructivist theory that the practices and meanings pertaining to overweight and dieting are formed and shaped both in the minds of each person and in the interpersonal interaction.

One of the main findings of the study was that there was a plethora of weight-loss products, and the marketing promised quick weight loss, improved looks, safety of the product, as well as the claims that the product was natural and would suppress appetite during the diet. In the Internet advertising of the Weight Watchers, the responsibility for making lifestyle changes was determined as one of the clients' responsibilities. Weight Watchers indicated that their responsibility is to have the experts of the company provide accurate information for the clients they needed for dieting.

The clinics offering liposuction did not refer to the individual's responsibility for weight or maintaining health. The customer's responsibility was to follow the instructions given by the experts at the clinic to a letter. The service providers' responsibility was to fulfil the wishes of the client pertaining to their appearance. In the Internet advertising for the liposuction clinics the ideal of the weight-loss management that the person would understand what the factors leading to the weight gain was not considered important. The morbidly obese people had various reasons for their obesity. The study found four explanation models, according to which the obesity is due to lifestyle, medical, psycho-emotional or socio-cultural reasons. It was typical in the obesity explanations for those who were successful in weight management that they followed the scientific knowledge about the causes of obesity. The negative and shame-based stigmata were strongly present in the understanding of those who had failed in the weight management.

A wish of improved appearance had a marked significance among the women interviewed in the health care system's weight-loss group. All of the women, regardless of their life circumstances or age, expressed a wish of losing weight for the more beautiful body and a more attractive appearance. Based on this study targeting the weight-loss advertising it is to be expected that the ideal of slenderness is not about to change. The weight-loss product marketing will likely continue to exploit the enduring wish of the people to lose large amounts of weight quickly, effectively, and with ease. It is important that the patients in the health care system are supported to set realistic weight-loss goals and to not believe the image marketing and unrealistic advertising claims set to enhance the sales desirability of the weight-loss products. It would behove to listen to the participants in the weight-loss groups about their own ideas about the factors that are causing their obesity. It also has to be accepted that even the strange-sounding explanations about the obesity may have some special significance in the mind of the person who provides it. The results of the study invite the research community to broaden the cultural view of the obesity and diet culture - the prevailing obesity discourses and the related practices.