Call for action: Hungry Hank board game

2nd December 2007

Call for action: Hungry Hank board game

posted in Fat Bias, Pop Culture |

Sandy Szwarc alerted readers this week to a troubling new board game out geared for young children. The game, Hungry Hank, not only reinforces prejudicial stereotypes of fat people, it also teaches children to think like anorectics and compulsive exercisers, writes Sandy.

Players come away learning that foods, especially “bad” foods, make them fat. The message being illustrated is that when a food is eaten, they must purge by expending a certain number of calories in exercise to avoid getting fat. Calorie counting before they can count.

For more on how the game operates, read Sandy’s discussion of it, or simply go to the Hungry Hank website.

A woman on a discussion group I am part of contacted the owner, Michael Moore (not that Michael Moore), a self-described fat person who insists he’s “sensitive” to these issues. He advised her to purchase the game before passing judgment. But no purchase is necessary to understand how the game operates and to realize the harmful messages it has the potential to instill in young, impressionable children.

The game is being sold online by the creator and through KB Toy Stores nationwide. I urge you to contact KB Toy Stores and alert the company about the harmful messages this game is sending out. Contact information is listed below:

Send a letter online; or write to K B Toys, 100 West Street, Pittsfield, MA 01201; or contact by phone at (413) 496-3000.

Helpful tips on how to structure letters of complaint can be found here.

And remember, if you get any replies, be sure to let us know in the comments below.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 at 12:58 pm and is filed under Fat Bias, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On December 2nd, 2007, ottermatic said:

Ha! Of COURSE he advised people to purchase the game first! “Listen, just buy it. You might still hate it, but that way I’ll get paid, okay?”

This is from the “Why you’ll love the game page,” under “Benefits”:

The game gets children thinking and asking questions about food choices and exercise at an early age (they don’t actually know this, they’re just having fun). The game does not label foods as good or bad, it just shows children there are choices.

This fun game reaches children before bad habits are established and before negative beliefs form and influence the choices they make everyday.

So… it doesn’t label food as good or bad, it just labels habits and beliefs about food as bad and negative. Got it.

posted on December 2nd, 2007 at 4:38 pm

2 On December 2nd, 2007, Rachel said:

Right, donuts and chocolate milk aren’t “bad,” per se. They just increase Hungry Hank’s chances of exploding whereupon you then “lose” the game.

posted on December 2nd, 2007 at 5:02 pm

3 On December 2nd, 2007, bigmovesbabe said:

So, as someone who has idly considered creating other board games, I have to wonder about the construction of Hungry Hank. Like, how does he explode? Is it an actual explosion, after which you have to put him together again for another round? Is it a noise? What triggers the explosion? When the expanding part (presumably a balloon or rubber part) touches something? If it is a rubber part, presumably there will be fatigue after a while. It won’t be as tight. So… it’ll be easier to expand? Which means that each “hit” of food will make more of an impact on the belly.

Ummm… maybe more like life than you meant it to be, Michael…

Marina

posted on December 2nd, 2007 at 6:40 pm

4 On December 2nd, 2007, Carrie said:

There’ll probably be Hungry Hank Part 2, where you can give Hank gastric bypass. It’s like modern-day Operation.

::rolls eyes::

And if that game does spring into existence, I’m moving to Antarctica.

posted on December 2nd, 2007 at 9:05 pm

5 On December 2nd, 2007, Brethren Priestess said:

The article about the game, posted on the Junkfood Science blog you link to, discusses the game thusly,
“Players (from two to four) roll a dice to make their way around a circular board, landing on food and exercise spaces.”

That sounds to me like the game is for two to four players, not two- to four-year-old players. And then I see the posts (here and on JFS) about the game describing it as marketed to two- to four-year-olds, to preschoolers. I am just wondering if that was a JFS typo/misread of the game description? The HH site also says the game is for 2-4 players who are aged 4+.

Of course, the game is still ridiculous and should be protested, but I just hope to be as clear on the details as possible…

posted on December 2nd, 2007 at 9:34 pm

6 On December 2nd, 2007, Rachel said:

Brethren Priestess – I changed my post to reflect the misinformation. Thanks for pointing that out.

posted on December 2nd, 2007 at 9:37 pm

7 On December 2nd, 2007, apricotmuffins said:

what gets me is that the excercise the kids are made to do doesnt do anything to make hank slim back down. Whats the point of even doing it for the game if it doesnt help your eventual chances of ‘not loosing’? In some ways its worse than having something positive happening for the excercising, because it teaches the message that the foods with more clicks of the button really are BAD, even with plenty of excercise. It even ignores the age-old fallacy of calories in, calories out, which is used in most anti-fat arguments.

aside from all thoughts about it being an offensive, brainwashing and potentially dangerous game, its also a very badly thought out game. Theres no incentive to DO the excercises! kids wouldnt care two squits and pass straight over it.

If i had been given that as a child i’d have just press the green button as fast and as many times as possible, then try and beat my record in making poor hank explode.

give me hungry hungry hippoes any day. Although im surprised that hasnt been banned due to it ‘encouraging binge eating habits’.

posted on December 2nd, 2007 at 10:52 pm

8 On December 3rd, 2007, Rachael Stern AKA TwistedBarbie said:

So if this charactor turns down food and becomes underweight, do you win, or do they actually identify that as unhealthy also?

posted on December 3rd, 2007 at 4:03 am

9 On December 3rd, 2007, Michael said:

Yeah, I’ve got to wonder that too.

posted on December 3rd, 2007 at 6:02 pm

10 On December 6th, 2007, Jackie said:

I wrote to Sandy, about how this game really terrorizes children when it comes to food. A small child might go to sleep at night, worrying if mommy or daddy becomes fat they’ll explode and die. Or that if they become fat they might explode and die. I don’t think one should need to see as many horror films as I have, which is alot, to understand how this would scare a child to death.

It’s like when I was a child, and this idiot teacher showed the class a UFO video, and said we could all be abducted. Alot of kids went home having nightmares that night, although strangely enough, I recall the aliens in my dream actually turning out to be friendly. Aside from that though, scaring children is never a good idea. It’s setting them up for having to see a psychologist or psychatrist in the future.

I mean seriously, do I have to have Michael watch horror films with a eye-opening gadget ala A Clockwork Orange, for him to get the idea that this is freaking terrifying to a child, or to anyone for that matter? If this was purposed in a horror film people would be outraged. Actually, there was a music video by Drowning Pool, where they hired a famous horror film effects person to make it look like a fat person, ate too much food and their stomach exploded rather graphically. Suffice to say, I never really liked Drowning Pool after that. Perhaps I should search up the YouTube of the video for Mr. Moore though, so he can understand exactly what message his game sends to children.

posted on December 6th, 2007 at 5:36 am