Doctors' Petition To Ban President Obama's Foodie Photo Ops Gets Tepid Response

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After two weeks, less than 1,900 signatures: Plenty of media attention did little to get Americans interested...
Despite plenty of attention from major media outlets, two weeks after being launched, a petition from Washington, DC-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) calling for an Executive Order banning President Obama, the First Family, Vice President Biden, and Cabinet Secretaries from being photographed eating "unhealthy foods" has had an underwhelming response from the American public.  The petition was posted on the White House petition site on May 09, and as of this writing has just 1,812 signatures. It's a micro-mini number given that news stories about the petition began appearing on May 7th in media entities that have a collective readership of millions.

Large commercial media outlets that covered the petition include Los Angeles Times and USA Today and Baltimore Sun and The Atlantic and Daily Mail UK and Huffington Post. The petition was also well-covered on small blogs. The majority of signers added their name to the petition in the first three days after the document went live on the White House site, while the media coverage was fresh. 

PCRM needs more than 23,000 signatures by June 8th to meet the 25,000 required for the petition to get an official response from the White House. The group, which promotes veganism and animal rights, bills the petition as a response to "the obesity crisis." PCRM claims that photos of the President and his cohorts eating things like burgers and hot dogs will boost Americans' consumption of what it dubs unhealthy foods, including processed meats "that can cause cancer and obesity."

"A typical photo op depicts a president entertaining a foreign dignitary, with both stuffing processed meats or hamburgers into their mouths for the assembled cameras," reads the petition.

That's by no means a "typical" photo op, but actually an infrequent event. A recent photo of the President enjoying hot dogs with British Prime Minister David Cameron is one of the few of Mr. Obama taken while he's been in office actually eating with a foreign leader. The White House itself has published a relatively small number of official photos of the President or First Family in the presence of food; official photos at events involving food are usually taken before the food has been served (as are press pool photos). The photo at the top of this post, from the White House, is rare, as is the one above, of the President with Russia's Dmitry Medvdev, burger in hand.

Most Presidential eating photos that exist come from the commercial media photographers who trail Mr. Obama in his press pool, and are usually taken when he's out in public surrounded by regular ol' American citizens. On the other hand, Obama for America, the President's re-election committee, has published plenty of food photos this year, thanks to the series of Dinner with Barack sweepstakes.

As a publicity stunt, PCRM's petition was good: It got the attention of the media. It got people talking about what they eat and what the President eats. But as a petition, it's flailing.

PCRM was in hot water with the White House in 2009...
PCRM has taken on the White House before. In August of 2009, the group plastered 14 photos around DC's Union Station Metro calling for healthier school lunches, which contained a reference to Obama daughters Malia and Sasha, who attend the private Sidwell Friends school, which offers vegetarian options in the cafeterias on its two campuses. (Above, the poster)

Within 24 hours of the signs' appearance, White House attorneys contacted PCRM and urged the group to take the posters down, arguing that though neither the Obama children's names nor their images appeared, it was a breach of the First Family's privacy. The child in the photo is Jasmine Messiah, at the times 8 years old and attending a Miami-Dade County public school. In press releases from PCRM, the child said she was a vegetarian. PCRM paid $20,000 to have the posters installed, according to Washington Post. They declined to remove them.

Congress, by the way, eventually passed legislation improving the National School Lunch Program, and President Obama signed it into law in 2010.

Ed. note about POTUS & his eating habits: I've spoken on the record outside this blog about President Obama's less-than-healthy eating habits (here's a recent example in print media). There's no question Mr. Obama is routinely in the presence of junkfood as he interacts with citizens. But he also eats a lot of healthy food, and works out like a pro athlete, as does the First Lady. The White House efforts to trim obesity rates with the Let's Move! campaign promotes moderation and balance, with no "ban" on any kind of foods.

Photos by Pete Souza/White House: At top, President Obama serves himself during a buffet lunch with President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia and U.S. and Colombian delegations at Casa de Huéspedes in Cartagena, Colombia, April 15, 2012. Second: President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have lunch at Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, Va., June 24, 2010.