Woxidu

What is a calorie, anyway? Everyone knows that calories come from the devil to make you fat, right? They’re the things that make junk food bad, right? I saw this ad on the subway today, from Con Edison:

 

And my first reaction was something like, “Wow, don’t people know that a calorie is a unit of energy?” From a technical perspective, this sign is entirely redundant. It’s like saying, “You’ll walk a distance, and you might even walk meters.” Obviously, that’s not the point of this sign. Even though a “calorie” is a unit of energy, its use almost always connotes a sense of culinary value, and this sign isn’t an exception. This sign is saying, “Watch your power consumption and you can take the opportunity to watch your health at the same time.”

 But for sure, it’s not quite that innocent and simple. To most everyone in New York, the only really good reason to care about energy consumption is because conservation will lower their monthly bills. The first part of this ad is therefore saying not much more than, “Think about what you want before you open the fridge, it’ll save you money.” And, again, to most everyone in New York, the only reason to think about saving calories is to lose weight. The second part of this ad is therefore saying, “Think about what you want before you open the fridge, it’ll help you lose weight.” What was almost an otherwise well-intentioned ad  — ostensibly waving the flag for the noble causes of conservancy and and environmental awareness — fell down the slippery slope of trying to make the ad relevant to laymen, and ended up telling everyone that we should all try to get more money and be skinnier.

I can’t help but heed my gut reaction that this isn’t going to lead us down any revolutionary new paths that point people’s attention and concerns towards the issue of energy consumption. Thanks, Con Ed.