OK City: Lose Weight, Get a Taco

Insert :rolleyes: here

mmm, what an incentive...crappy fake mexican food from a fast food joint...

Can they not see the irony? Lose weight and get free fast food? Considering 99% of the public thinks all fat people get fat by spending their lives at fast food joints. That's like telling diabetics "Get your blood sugar down to 80-120, we'll give you a free candy bar!"

It would be far easier to just go and buy a fresco taco from them...or just wait until everyone else lost the weight and then go in to collect your free taco. This has to be one of the stupidest motivators I have ever heard for weight loss.

Wow, a $0.89 taco. That's sooo worth a diet.

There's the obvious, which has already been pointed out: the tacos are cheap — it's not like they're offering a Ferrari or a college scholarship. If you accept the prevailing myths about weight, it's also kooky to reward weight loss with food, and fast food at that. Da' mayor who is soooo concerned about my big ass doesn't even bring it up. Makes ya wonder.

It also makes me think of all those women's magazines whose covers blare: "Drop 10 dress sizes in 10 minutes," or whatever, but right next to that are the headlines: "Make this mind-blowing chocolate cake!" or, worse, "Be happy at any size!" Dumb. Just dumb.

Then we have "dumb" specific to this promotion:

The slogan: "You can't lose a million pounds by yourself."

Um, duh?

Then this:

"... while people don't necessarily want to change their behavior regarding fast food, they do want to change the outcome -- namely, gaining unwanted weight."

OK...Did someone TELL the reporter "I don't want to change my behavior regarding fast food, I just don't want to gain weight"? Because, if not, this is an absurd statement. Hell, it's absurd anyway. "Their behavior"? What? Lewd and lascivious, "come to mama, you sweet, sweet taco," behavior? Could it be...they mean EATING? I didn't know that was a "behavior." I thought it was a basic requirement.

Then the typical offensive assumption: that the "outcome" of eating fast food is inevitably "weight gain." And of course, even though we all "know" this, we're too weak to resist! Ugh.

And does this cute little campaign keep track of how many people KEEP the weight off? If the city collectively gains too much of it back, do they have to forfeit their tacos? (Every time I have the misfortune of dining at a Taco Bell — all two times in my life — I wind up "forfeiting" my meal. )

The ending really irritated me:

'What this initiative has done is penetrated through that concept that we couldn't talk about obesity,' he said.

Umm...what? Who's not talking about obesity? Has he never turned on a television set, walked by a magazine rack, read a newspaper headline, or listened to his wife? Who's "not talking" about obesity??? What he means is: "Well, shuckins, there's this here notion that it might be rude or invasive or even pointless. Haha! In your face, fatties who think you have the right to be left alone!"

'Pretending that this is going to go away on its own is silly. We're going to have to get people actually addressing it and be willing to talk about it. It's not OK for the city to be 28 percent obese.'

There ya go. We are a public menace and we must "go away" and the city must "help" us go away. Because it's "Not OK."

But I agree on one point. We DO need to talk about "it." And well-meaning, wannabe hero bigots like him need to be willing to listen.

Well, I'm not in OKC, but I do live in Tulsa. My friends and I eat at Taco Bell every Saturday after Melee (medieval sports reenactment (www.nicholshire.com), and I routinely get two cheesy gordita crunches with steak, a side of sour cream, a side of baja sauce, and a carmel apple empanada. And since we do eat there every Saturday without fail, and we bring them lots of business, we get free drinks. And never once have I even looked at their frisco menu. Nor shall I.

**************
"A diet counselor once told me that all overweight people are angry with their mothers and channel their frustrations into overeating. So I guess that means all thin people are happy, calm, and have resolved their Oedipal entanglements."

I've eaten there once, more to say that I have than anything else. The food was average rather than outstanding, and I've had better burritos in the UK, which isn't saying much. If the president of the company is buying into the fast-food obesity-epidemic self-flagellation, I certainly won't be eating there again - give me a Wendy's any day

So, in other words, the whole city is supposed to engage in a feat of collective self-denial for about a year, then go to Taco Hell and get a free portion of something that has the same effect as Ex-Lax???

Yuuuucccckkkk!!!!!!

I have a better idea - stay home and make up a huge batch of tacos from scratch, with Old El Paso taco sauce and cheese and lettuce/tomato/onions, then set up at a table with a protest sign and a petition, and everyone who signs gets a free GOOD taco.

Zero isn't a size, it's a warning sign. - Carson Kressley
The Kevin Pease Beer Fund Foundation - Won't Someone PLEASE think of the psychology students?

I don't understand how this is a bad thing.

[edited - Paul] I don't think this is a case of fat exploitation.

And they're getting a "diet" taco in return. Who doesn't like free stuff? Really, it's a smart move on Taco Bell's part to take this opportunity to bring attention to their lighter menu...which seems to me a lot more proactive than McDonald's who waited out the backlash from "Super Size Me" before pushing their dinky wilted salads to the fore, in addtion to crapple dippers and milk.

Really? I mean, just, really?

Zero isn't a size, it's a warning sign. - Carson Kressley
The Kevin Pease Beer Fund Foundation - Won't Someone PLEASE think of the psychology students?

Annie, that's a good idea! That way, people don't have to get sick to get free food.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a business that isn't opportunistic.

It's not pro-diet talk. I just don't see what the big deal is.

A big deal would be if OK City mandated that 17,000 fat people could not be hired in the city, for merely refusing to go on a diet.

A big deal would be if OK City public schools refused to educate 17,000 children for no other reason than being fat.

But 17,000 people going on a diet? No biggie - it happens every day, just not in the same city. They're not being forced to do it.

Taco Bell food? A reward? hahahahhahaha. More like a last resort.

A "fresco" taco at TB is one with no cheese or sauce. Cool, I get the even more flavorless version! Maybe my neighbor's dog will like it, if she hasn't had dinner yet.

And yeah, hyping people to crash diet for the sake of civic duty IS a big deal, Laura.

Whatevs - no worries. It's just my opinion.