Fitness centre's adverts alien to good taste

A fitness centre's advertising campaign which pokes fun at fat people has been labelled derogatory and distasteful.

A billboard for the California Fitness Centre chain displayed in Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, features the face of an alien with the slogan: 'When they come, they'll eat the flabby ones first.' The Chinese version says: 'When they come to the Earth, the fatties will be the first to be doomed.' Marianna Law Po-chu, senior officer for the Equal Opportunities Commission, said: 'We find the poster as a whole derogatory and distasteful.

'A certain group of people is being victimised because the advert suggests fat people deserve to be eaten.' Although the poster was not illegal, the commission advised the centre to rectify the problem.

Company chief executive officer Eric Levine admitted the Chinese translation was discriminatory, but said the English one was well meant.

'I feel everybody should exercise because everyone is a little flabby,' he said.

'If there's a translation problem, we do apologise for it. We'll look into it and will make a correction.' Dr Freedom Leung Yiu-kin, of the Chinese University's psychology department, said: 'This ridicules a certain type of people and that creates unnecessary emotional stress for them.'