Obesity Action Coalition Partners with Eli Lilly to Expose Shocking Weight Bias in Healthcare and Media

Since 2021, the Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) has led a national public awareness campaign to combat weight bias and end the lifelong stigma that people with obesity suffer in multiple areas, including health care, employment, education and media coverage.

The latest development in the Stop Weight Bias campaign is a collaboration with Eli Lilly, maker of the best-selling weight-loss drug Zepbound, to create a set of images designed to portray obese people more accurately and politely. These images are more fair and respectful than the images of obesity commonly seen in the media and the medical establishment.

In a statement announcing the series on Friday, the OAC noted that past images have often portrayed obese patients as comical, dehumanizing or contemptuous objects, wrongly portraying obesity as a "personal failure" rather than a complex chronic disease.

The unbiased photo gallery, which will be officially launched next week at the HLTH conference in Las Vegas, has been opened in advance to the media, researchers, healthcare professionals, nonprofits and any individuals seeking to reduce the stigmatized image of obesity.

The gallery contains still photos and videos, which are free to use, and are subdivided into categories such as "Business professional", "sports", "Family" and "food", aiming to present the diverse daily lives of obese people with authenticity and dignity.

James Zervios, chief operating officer of the OAC, said: "Weight stigma has a profound impact on patients' mental, physical and emotional well-being and often leads patients to avoid seeking necessary health care services. The Stop Weight Bias library is working to reshape public perceptions of obesity and set new, more accurate and respectful standards for media coverage."

As sales of Lilly's GLP-1 drug continue to grow, the company has made clear its support for obese patients. However, it's worth noting that while some of its ads target the beauty and weight loss community, the company also directly challenges weight bias with ads like "Shame." The AD tells the story of an obese woman who confronts widespread prejudice, which she points out has been a shadow over her life and reminds her of her body's "due value." The AD ends with the words "obesity is a matter of health, not shame", calling on society to face up to the problem of obesity and discard prejudice.