[plastic-enjoyer]

Because it's too obvious. There needs to be some hidden, world encompassing conspiracy, so that people feel superior when they are one of the few enlightened ones that see through the matrix and start drinking raw milk to live like our testosterone pumped ancestors.

[janalsncm]

If you are a podcast host that gives hot takes on news headlines, which one are you going to choose?

Option one: obesity and weight problems. Statistically 77% of your audience is either overweight or obese because 77% of Americans are either overweight or obese.

Option two: feminism, microplastics, anime, or literally any other thing than option one.

[altairprime]

Option three: “Three in four American men have a partial vasectomy now: Thanks, obesity!”

Poor headline writing around obesity is no excuse for deflective headline writing away from obesity!

Or if you prefer a different market’s take: “Corrupted food is feminizing men” and then diving into how Big Ag has a secret agenda to poison men everywhere and both political parties are in on it, as a way to introduce the issues of artificial sweeteners (HFCS, splenda, monkfruit, and others) would be stunningly effective. Yeah, it’s kinda exploitative, but when in Rome applies when it comes to public health messaging, and I’d rather that market learned to direct some of their rage at the corporations that deserve it while giving them a chance to decide for the better.

Point being, there’s no excuse for avoiding obesity in headlines if you want to write clickbait for an audience. And with #3 above, especially if you set “Thanks, obesity!” as the Subtitle that only shows up when you visit the page, as Vox and others do, then you can maximize clicks far better than either option #1 or #2 would.