Comedian Sofie Hagen accuses Cancer Research of ‘fat shaming’ over obesity poster Cancer Research have been accused of “fat shaming” over their latest advertising campaign warning about the dangers of obesity. Comedian […]

Cancer Research have been accused of “fat shaming” over their latest advertising campaign warning about the dangers of obesity.

Comedian Sofie Hagen called out the charity on Twitter by posting a photo of their latest poster alongside the caption: “How the f*****g f**k is this okay?”

The poster, which is intended to highlight the link between obesity and cancer, contains a hangman style puzzle and calls obesity “the second biggest preventable cause of cancer after smoking”.

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But award winning comedian Hagen hit back, describing the campaign as “incredibly damaging”.

‘Incredibly damaging’

“Right, is anyone currently working on getting this piece of s**t Cancer Research UK advert removed from everywhere? Is there something I can sign? How the f*****g f**k is this okay?” She tweeted.

“What your campaign is doing is so incredibly damaging, that I can’t even begin to describe it in only 280 characters. There are many people who have tweeted me their articles about it, try reading those. There is no excuse for you to have this campaign up.

“Your campaign is so damaging and fat shaming and I really hope it gets taken down.”

Hagen also blasted the use of BMI as a measure of obesity, claiming “it’s not a valid way of measuring anything”.

15% aware of link

Cancer Research was quick to defend its poster, however. The charity said that only a small minority are aware that being overweight causes cancer.

“This is not about fat shaming. It is based on scientific evidence and designed to give important information to the public,” the company replied.

“Our campaign isn’t meant to make anyone feel bad about their weight or make anyone think negatively about people who are overweight or obese.”

According to the charity, only 15 per cent of people are aware of the link between obesity and cancer. One of their studies showed that being overweight can cause 13 different types of the disease within the human body.