#Orchids&Onions: Sugar scares and DA's AI blunders
At 18, holding hands with my first girlfriend, I was – I now realise – living at a time when there were much fewer temptations to become a ‘couch potato’ - no internet, no social media, and TV only ran for a limited time every day.
It was also a time before “Big Food” started mass producing the junk we consume on a daily basis…much of it containing sugar or cornstarch.
Big Food went hand-in-hand with fast food, and the super-sizing of these cheap convenience foods is what helped make America, and many other countries, obese societies.
When sugar stops being sweet
But sugar can also be a killer, or a crippler. That much is evident in the hard-hitting public service campaigns for heala.org.za – the Healthy Living Alliance, a coalition of South African civil society organisations advocating for equitable access to affordable, nutritious food by building a more just food system.
The insidious and long-term effects of over-sugared food lead to diabetes, which is one of the major health problems in this country.
Heala is campaigning to have taxes increased on sugary drinks to reduce consumption of them is campaigning to have taxes increased on sugary drinks to reduce consumption and get consumers onto healthier alternatives.
Their latest message – it’s more than an ad – features Dr Darren Green, who is not only the epitome of credibility but also genuinely scary at the same time.
Doctors see the results, so using him was a genius move.
The post also shows two examples of the effects of diabetes – examples which are explored in great detail in videos on the heala.org.za website, which tells the story of real people and real suffering.
If this doesn’t make you re-think sugar and processed foods as a whole, nothing will.
Orchid to the Healthy Living Alliance and the whole team behind this campaign.
How to damage your brand in one AI-generated image
At the risk of upsetting DA supporters, I must say the blue party is in dire need of a brand manager… and one with a decent dose of common sense.
If you are campaigning in politics, it is not advisable to lie – not if the lie can be picked up so easily. Someone should tell that to Andrew Whitfield, MP, who in an attempt to burnish the DA brand, has resorted to using AI to show the supposed collapse of towns not run by his party.
He even admitted that the image he posted of Knysna run by a coalition of the ANC, EFF, and Patriotic Alliance had been composed by AI.
He used it to compare to one of Jeffreys Bay, which is run by the DA.
The Knysna pic – put together from a pastiche of images from riot-torn Haiti – was nothing like you would actually see in the town. I know. I now live there.
If you are prepared to lie – which is what the Knysna image was – to make your point, you don’t have one. And, as a voter, I would be very worried about what else you say is a lie.
For example: The DA is blaming the current administration, which has been in office for a much shorter period than the DA ran Knysna, for the chaos in failing to plan for drought, which is now upon us.
That claim ignores the reality that the planning for replacement, maintenance, and building resilience in the water supply system should have been done years ago – when the blue party was in charge.
Selective amnesia is the sly cousin of outright lying…
So Whitfield gets a sour Onion for being dishonest.
However, much as she gets up some people’s noses, Helen Zille’s video campaigns, showing how Joburg is a wreck – she is pitching to be mayor there one day – are real, not made up.
If the DA had a proper brand manager, there would be brand image rules sent out – and adhered to by all. And the other clowns could do worse than to follow Zille's example.
