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Let me be very clear about where I’m coming from.
I’ve stood in a grocery store doing math on my phone to make sure my card wouldn’t decline, so watching a Super Bowl ad shame families for the food they’re eating — while parents are choosing between groceries and bills, kids rely on school meals to eat, and food pantry lines are at record highs — felt wildly out of touch.
So when that Mike Tyson MAHA ad aired during the Super Bowl, it didn’t feel bold or brave or “telling hard truths.”
It felt out of touch. Because right now, moms aren’t choosing between “processed” and “organic.” We’re choosing between enough and not enough.
There are families who rely on school breakfast and lunch because those are the only guaranteed meals their kids get. Summer isn’t a break — it’s a scramble. Food pantry lines are longer than ever. Inflation has turned basic groceries into luxury items. Jobs are unstable. Bills are relentless.
And that is the moment someone decided to run an ad essentially saying, “The food you’re feeding your family is killing you.”
Do you know how that lands to a parent who is already doing mental math in the cereal aisle?
It doesn’t inspire change. It doesn’t educate. It just adds shame to survival.
Telling people to “eat better” without acknowledging cost, access, time, food deserts, or reality is lazy messaging. Worse — it’s cruel. Because many of us are already stretching meals, shopping sales, skipping things for ourselves so our kids don’t go without.
And choosing Mike Tyson as the face of that message only made it worse. Look, I love Mike Tyson the boxer. I don’t think anyone’s ruffling eyebrows at his personal journey — getting healthier, being honest about mistakes, whatever.
But the way this ad was executed? That’s where the problem starts. This is a man with a documented history of violence against women, including a rape conviction, positioned as a moral authority lecturing families about health and responsibility.
That disconnect matters. Health advocacy requires credibility, empathy, and trust — not fear-based messaging delivered by someone whose past already alienates large parts of the audience. If your “wake-up call” ignores survival, access, and lived reality — and comes from the wrong messenger — it’s not advocacy. It’s judgment, and it’s gross.
And then there’s MAHA itself, which isn’t some neutral wellness movement but is closely aligned with MAGA politics and culture-war messaging, whether they admit it or not. That context matters. When fear-based “health” rhetoric, a deeply polarizing political agenda, and the wrong spokesperson collide — the result isn’t advocacy. It’s judgment aimed at people who are already stretched thin, just trying to feed their kids. And that’s not bold or brave. It’s gross.
Health conversations that ignore affordability and access aren’t really about health. They’re about judgment.
And honestly? Running a guilt-heavy ad during a game that families watch together — while eating whatever they could afford for that night — was just… gross.
Families don’t need lectures. We need support. We need systems that make feeding our kids easier — not messaging that makes us feel like we’re failing them when we’re actually holding everything together with duct tape and love.
If you’ve ever stood in a grocery aisle doing math, this ad didn’t miss you. It talked down to you.
And that’s why so many of us felt it in our gut — not as motivation, but as a punch.
What are your thoughts? Sound off in the comments!
