[ Eating disorders group goes backwards ]
May 15, 2009 | By Norma Ramage | Comments
The Eating Disorders Education Organization has found a new way to get its message out: in reverse.
The Edmonton-based organization has released a 30-second TV spot from Calgary agency Wax that turns the normal commercial format on its head, with almost everything backwards—from the model eating ice cream to the music and even the super of the organization’s name and website that runs at the start of the spot.
Peggy Szucs, executive director of EDEO, said the abnormality of the “Cream Ice” spot catches people’s attention and also emphasizes “that there’s nothing normal about an eating disorder.”
In a mind-bending twist which emphasizes the model’s strange, backwards eating, she turns the pages of the magazine she’s reading in the normal, forward direction.
Sebastien Wilcox, creative director at Wax, which created the spot pro bono, said the backwards approach was intended to grab people’s attention and “make them ask ‘What did I just see? That was weird.’ It’s a way of saying in 30 seconds that eating disorders are weird.”
The EDEO is using the spot as an introduction to America the Beautiful, a U.S. documentary about the modeling profession that is showing in small art theatres across Canada. The spot has also been released to major TV networks as a public service announcement.
The music for the spot is from Vancouver band Mass Undergoe. Lead singer Davis Isbister has himself beaten his problem with bulimia and has become a spokesman for EDEO.
