Washington, DC –The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) will run a full-page, color advertisement in this Saturday’s edition of The New York Times blasting “Nanny” Bloomberg’s newest and most egregious attack on New Yorkers’ personal responsibility. Mayor Bloomberg announced Thursday morning new regulations that will restrict the size of sugar-sweetened beverages sold in New York City restaurants, coffee houses, stadiums, movie theaters, and arenas to just 16 ounces.
The ad features “Nanny” Bloomberg towering over the skyline of New York City with the headline “The Nanny. You only thought you lived in the land of the free.” The ad asks, “What’s next? Limits on the width of a pizza slice, size of a hamburger or amount of cream cheese on your bagel?”
“Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to regulate the size of sugar-sweetened beverages is insulting, paternalistic, and smacks of the police state,” said J. Justin Wilson, CCF’s Senior Research Analyst. “Personal irresponsibility is what got New Yorkers to put on a few extra pounds. And it’s going to take personal responsibility, not a government takeover of our diet, to shed those pounds.”
Bloomberg’s seemingly endless campaign against soft drinks in the Big Apple is absurdly misguided when it comes to promoting weight loss. Study after study has demonstrated that soda is not a unique contributor to obesity. In fact, a recent analysis by the National Cancer Institute found that soda intake actually accounts for less than seven percent of the average person’s daily calories. If Bloomberg and his health department believe dictating the size of soda cups is going to be even a partial solution for obesity, they have bigger problems than we imagined.
“New Yorkers elected Bloomberg as their Mayor, not their mother,” said Wilson. “New Yorkers should really be asking what’s next on his crusade against all food with calories.”
