ABSTRACT
Health, morals, and the neoliberal economy have become caught up with each other in a significant way in both the public discourse and public policies concerning fatness. This chapter uses one particular case to illustrate how these issues become tangled up with one another in subtle and not so subtle ways. It explores how fatness is portrayed as wasteful, excessive, unproductive, immoral, and expensive, and how the global economic discourse is woven into the portrayal. The case is a weight-loss campaign that ran in Finland in the spring of 2010, some years after the obesity epidemic discourse had started to become a major public discussion. When the campaign was launched, the obesity epidemic discourse had already become the dominant cultural frame to discuss fatness. It clearly provided the inspiration and politics behind the "Literacy in Fat" campaign. For every kilogram, or couple of pounds, in weight lost, the sponsor would pay fifteen euros towards improving teacher education in Nepal.
