Battling the bulge is big business. Soon, however, learning to live with it could generate an economic boom. Not so long ago obesity was just another health scare; today it poses one of the biggest health risks. And to underline the point, big business is now starting to regard ever-expanding waistlines as a leading consumer trend that is here to stay.
Fat has become a corporate issue. Bigger consumers pose both challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, they put greater strain on existing products and services, which means that manufacturers must spend more to stop things falling apart. On the other, however, bigger consumers represent a new market for “super size” products.
“Overweight is one the greatest challenges facing people around the world. Not everyone smokes. Not everyone takes illegal drugs or has unprotected sex. But everyone eats,” according to the authors of a new report, Globesity, published this month not by a healthcare organisation but by an advertising agency.
“Airlines that start catering for bigger bottoms, mass-market retailers who bring plus-size clothing into the mainstream rather than ignoring it as a niche — these are the sorts of companies who will benefit,” predicts Marian Salzman, a leading futurologist and chief strategic officer of Euro RSCG, the company behind the Globesity report In the United States, Gap recently became the first big-name retailer to increase its largest US jean size — from 14 to 20 (size 24 in the UK). Sales of extra large-sized clothes hangers, wardrobes, chairs, mattresses and sports equipment are booming. One company, Goliath Caskets, even offers a special range of coffins for the obese — a typical model is 4ft (1.22 metres) wide, requires 15 pallbearers and can hold a 64st (406kg) corpse. Goliath’s sales are growing by one fifth each year.
Our growing concerns about obesity are highlighted by Globesity’s findings, which show that 53 per cent of 1,200 consumers surveyed in the US believe parents who let their children become obese are guilty of abuse; 80 per cent believe childhood obesity is higher than ever; and 60 per cent believe that schools do not do enough to address the problem. Ultimately, 97 per cent of people surveyed consider being overweight an individual’s own fault. But the question posed by many was: where to turn for help. Half of those surveyed claim there’s so much contradictory information about health and nutrition they no longer know who to believe.
Salzman says: “It’s a complex issue and a global one.” In America especially, recent world events and the threat of terrorism have made people feel insecure. They are turning to food for comfort and caring less about the consequences of unhealthy eating. “So we sneak about eating — restricting ourselves in public, binging in private, gaining momentary comfort with accompanying guilt — wondering will we even be around long enough to die of coronary heart disease?” says Salzman.
Department of Health statistics show that more than half of the British population is now overweight. British food manufacturers are rolling out soft drinks, sweet and savoury snacks in American-style super sizes; high street retailers, led by Marks & Spencer, are increasing their women’s dress sizings; London Underground’s latest rolling stock sports bigger seats; and one enterprising City restaurateur has even introduced larger chairs for its expanding clientele.
“It’s a huge potential new market for us — an area where design could generate real improvements,” says Ingelise Nielsen, of Ideo, a leading UK-based product design company that will shortly brief a leading international consumer goods and pharmaceuticals client on the design implications of obesity.
All of which can only be good news for the growing number of us who are overweight, right? Well, up to a point. For while, according to Globesity, there’s growing sympathy for the overweight and, with manufacturers taking a closer interest, less stigma and more choice — opinion on the rights and wrongs of “cashing in” is split.
“Clearly there’s a fundamental problem in the food industry,” Professor Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, says. He points out that super sizing was recently condemned by the World Cancer Research Fund as a root cause of growing obesity levels. Now, Sainsbury’s is running “healthy weight” store tours, while manufacturers, including Kraft Foods, are looking into producing reduced portion-sized goods. “But, of course, we can’t tell whether people will simply end up buying additional smaller portions and spending more,” Lang adds.
Dr Ian Campbell, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, an independent medical organisation, welcomes the growing interest in catering for the obese now being shown by other business sectors. “It’s shameful a large proportion of the population can’t sit in their favourite restaurant or travel with comfort by plane,” he says. “We need to work harder to improve tolerance of obese people. As a society we give them a very hard time indeed.”
Yet, others argue, accentuating the different requirements of the obese can have a negative effect. “With obese kids in particular, the danger is making them feel even more alienated,” David Tonge, director and programme manager of the Carnegie Weight Loss Camp, in West Yorkshire, says. “This, in turn, lowers confidence and self esteem — both of which are essential if they are to confront their obesity and lose weight.”
There is, of course, a supreme irony, even perversity, in a business culture that promotes unhealthy diets, then seeks to capitalise on the problems it creates. For Salzman, however, the opening up of new markets fuelled by our need for bigger products is an irreversible trend “The only question is how to respond, not if,” she says. “This is something that isn’t going away — a consumer trend that’s only going to get bigger.”
