Jamie Oliver's TED Talk, Meh.

Jamie Oliver’s TED Talk, Meh.

Feb
2010

3 Comments By chadgardner Posted in Rant

For the past week or so, I have seen Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food speech floating around everywhere. I took the time to watch the video because healthy eating is a concept that has intrigued me since my move to Colorado in 2006.

Being exposed to this new, healthier Colorado lifestyle, combined with my parents willingness to pick up the grocery tab (hey, eating healthy isn’t always cheap), I took a new perspective to what I was putting in my body eating (cutting out microbrew beer was out of the question).

I was thoroughly disappointed by his speech, which led to this tweet.

Being limited to 140 characters destroyed the context of my message, which I had many responses to.

I want to clarify what I was trying to sum up.

First, I thought his speech was drab. That has nothing, or at least very little, to do with the topic. I just thought he was a terrible public speaker. With an issue so prevalent in our country, I would have liked to see a more memorable performance. I walked away feeling like he kept repeating himself while not saying much of anything.

Here is his mission statement:

I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.

How can I not be on board with this? I am extremely glad he won the $100,000 Ted Prize to get the ball rolling on this, but I think aiming his speech at awareness was a little belittling to the live audience and viewer alike.

He showed a few, brief clips of families that were being torn apart by unhealthy lifestyles, but those people aren’t his audience. Those people are the audience of his initiative, not speech. I think it would be safe to assume people that attend and watch Ted Talks are mostly educated individuals. Given this, I think he should have focused more on how to get involved as opposed to the problem.

Do you walk down the street and see fast food chains everywhere? Have you ever read the nutritional label on a box before? Are there fat people everywhere? It is blatantly obvious that we live in an unhealthy society. Does he really need to be telling us to eat more natural foods? Instead, tell us how to get involved.

I happen to love the show Jamie at Home, and I really appreciate his efforts toward a growing epidemic. I just thought this clip was a little disappointing.

What did you think? Did he bring up anything you already didn’t know? Was this a memorable speech (not issue)?

Banana Hands

I think the speech itself while not being memorable it’s message did resonante with me. I did however have to do my own research to find out ways to join the movement (which after a few minutes I gave up because I couldn’t find any). For being in front of a camera for most of his career he was not a particularly good public speaker.

There were a few memorable moments of his time on stage and they were both images and not his words. One was a scene where he had a heaping pile of nasty food on a kitchen table and was telling a mother that by continuing to feed her kids that food she was in fact KILLING THEM. The second was a wheelbarrow full of the amount of sugar a kid consumes in a year by drinking two 1/2 pints of school milk a day.

Seeing as the audience in that room more than likely was both well educated and well off a more direct appeal to them for help with his movement would have been more effective. Presuming audience members live in numerous different cities couldn’t he have taken the time to explain how each could incorporate one of his new age kitchens he spoke of that would sustain the local schools.

I’m surprised he didn’t plug his upcoming ABC show which documented his turnaround of the fattest city in America, Huntington WV.
http://chadgardner.me Chad Gardner

I’ve done enough research to not be that shocked by the images.

You keyed in on my frustration — for someone that genuinely cares about this issue, how do I get involved? I am sure he is going to make many appearances in the future about this issue, but I thought this was a wasted opportunity.

You should come over this weekend and watch Food, Inc. with me. Amazingly frustrating, yet enlightening. Or I can let you borrow a Michael Pollan book, probably “In Defense of Food.” Wildly informative.
Banana Hands

I wouldn’t say I was shocked by the images, however they were more memorable than his monologue or mission statement.

Like you it took an event to change my perception about food intake. You moved to Colorado, I decided to commit to losing weight and getting healthier. Well mine was also for financial gain by attempting to win a bet but it got me examining my food intake nonetheless.

I think if nothing else that could have been another strong point Jamie should have emphasized. Whether or not you wish to join and help others, the least you can do is really think about each meal and what you are consuming each day.

What I was shocked by was how I only made a few simple changes and I was able to lose a significant amount of weight. That may all go to shit when my coworker and I venture to Milwaukee to take on a pizza eating challenge!

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Jamie Oliver’s TED Talk, Meh.