Mark G writes:

“There appears to be a few people who are questioning the validity of this video and others suggesting that the content, or the intent, is misleading.

To those people, I offer the following.

This video was created for three reasons:

1. To help fight childhood obesity.
2. To promote the importance of an active lifestyle and healthy eating.
3. To inspire others to see what the PWS community has done in an effort to try and overcome these obstacles.

I can also assure you that this video was not created with the intention to mislead, nor to make an inappropriate emotional appeal through the misplaced use of pictures or music.

We chose to share our story of obesity through the power of words…not through the exploitation of pictures.

We chose to use ‘sad’ music because it’s sad to see children crying because they’re hungry…but they’re not allowed to eat. It’s sad to see children stealing food. It’s sad to see children eating from the garbage. It’s sad to see adults living at home because they cannot live without supervision.

We chose the song Everybody Hurts, because these people are hurting. Their families are hurting. Their friends are hurting.

We chose to show the power of the One Small Step movement because we have hope…and we want to inspire others to feel the same. This is our mission.

We chose to show pictures of ‘cute’ children because people with PWS are beautiful people. The children are innocent. They are born genetically predisposed to become obese, while some may not…many will.

There also seems to be some criticism that this entry is nothing more than a ploy to help our cause and that it does not fit the criteria for this competition. To that I would say:

If this competition was aimed at better understanding hypertension or cholesterol…would you only consider entries based on lifestyle choices and dismiss all of those related to heredity?

If the goal of this competition was to try and better understand depression…would you only consider the entries that were based on people who have suffered tragedy in their lives and dismiss those people who may have been born with a genetic predisposition to mental illness?

The same holds true for the war on obesity. Why should submissions be solely based on lifestyle choices and not accept the submission of people who are at great risk because of their genetic makeup?

In the end, obesity is obesity. Let’s focus on trying to better understand the complexity of the hunger mechanism, to better understand ‘why’ these children are hungry. Despite whether obesity is caused by lifestyle or genetics…the answers to these questions, will provide insight to all.

While I do not have a direct family member with PWS, I know many families who do. And I can assure you that none of them have made a negative comment about any of the other sixty submissions.

They have not tried to undermine the efforts of the other participants, nor have they dismissed the causes that others believe in and stand up for.

It’s understandable that not everyone will truly appreciate or agree with what we are trying to achieve, and that’s okay…you don’t need to vote.

But rather than trying to question the validity of what the PWS community stands for and the movement that they believe in… perhaps your efforts would be better served on supporting the cause that you do believe in. Help raise positive awareness for their submission, rather than trying to bring negative awareness to ours.

For anyone reading this who does not know someone affected with PWS, rest assured that you would understand the fight, agree with the cause, support the efforts, and vote for the submission if you did.”