Analysis Of Fed Up By Stephanie Soechtig

Our country’s obesity crisis has continued to get worse over the years despite our trying to fix the problem, well some of us. In the documentary “Fed Up”, which is written and produced by Stephanie Soechtig in 2014, she talks about the ongoing crisis of childhood obesity. She claims that processed foods are packed with too much sugar and served everywhere and that big food companies have refused to help end this crisis. She attempts to use this documentary to drive people to action. Soechtig builds up the documentary with very dramatic emotional appeals and statistics and uses this hold on the audience to effectively make them believe her argument and motivate them to do something about this crisis.

In the documentary, she starts by

Most of these sources are pediatric doctors that have seen firsthand the problems caused by childhood obesity. Dr. Robert

Lustig, Margo Wootan, and Kelly Brownelle are just a few of the many people who were brought into the film. An author of a bestselling book called “Why we get fat and what to do about it” Gary Taubes was also brought in to give his opinion on the problem. Soechtig is a credible source because she has seen and reported similar things. Soechtig came from a broadcast journalism background, and she has directed two other documentaries on pollution and uncovering the truth. Incorporating these sources effectively boost her ethos throughout the entire documentary and prove that she knows what she is doing by admitting that she does not know all the answers, but she is smart enough to bring in people that do.

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She wraps up her argument with lots of evidence. Her attempts to build a connection at the beginning of the documentary are built upon as she explains how low these big companies will stoop to not lose a profit. With the use of emotional appeals and statistics, she has the audience hooked on what she is proving, so she begins her ‘call to action’. She provides

She ends the film by using the connection that was established with the audience throughout the documentary to call them to action. First, she drives home the point that nothing good will happen if we let this epidemic continue by using more statistics. The solution she has come up with is “to demonize these companies and change the way we look at them and hope that the politicians will take on these food industries the way that they should instead of backing them up” (Soechtig). This is what we did with the tobacco companies and look where we are now with that problem. I believe that this is the strongest option available for stopping this crisis.

Soechtig is very smart in using pathos so early in the documentary because it builds a connection with the audience, so the solution to the problem does not seem that hard to accomplish. She keeps the tone of the conclusion the same if not a little more triumphant than the rest of the film to not discredit herself or the problem. I believe that this was the best way to end this documentary as it gave the viewer a goal that can be achieved and the use of pathos through the documentary proves the necessity to achieve it.

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