© 2011 Aaron Atkinson

Who’s Hungry?

The other day as I was driving to the airport I noticed a billboard for a local food pantry. While the organization’s logo was small, the statistic that they were promoting was featured in large, bold, maroon text. It read 1 in 6 Americans struggle with hunger.

Knowing that statistics can be easily manipulated, I did a little hunger research of my own.

According to this New York Times article, 34 percent of adults and 17 percent of children in the United States are obese. That works out to about 1 in 3 and 1 in 6 respectively. Doing some very simple math, if a weight loss billboard were to publish a similar statistic, it could say 1 in 4 Americans struggle with hunger (having too much).

Now, if these two groups were to co-sponsor a billboard to increase hunger awareness their shared statistic could easily read 5 in 12 Americans struggle with hunger, and as such, 1 in 4 should eat less so that 1 in 6 can eat more, so that all 5 in 12 can be as nutritionally content as the other 7, who just happen to represent the majority who are not always hungry.

It’s funny how some advertisements really get you thinking.

2 Comments

  1. skyla Mann
    Posted April 14, 2011 at 1:09 am | #

    Oh my gosh, that made me laugh out loud. I needed that today, Aaron. I REALLY did. Thanks!

  2. Aaron Atkinson
    Posted April 14, 2011 at 1:08 pm | #

    I’m glad it brightened your day. But you know what would REALLY brighten your day… ice cream!

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