Rhetorical Analysis: Documentary 'Fat Head' - English 1301

This report provides a rhetorical analysis of the documentary "Fat Head," focusing on the film's persuasive techniques and effectiveness. The analysis examines how the documentary, directed by Tim Naughton, refutes the claims made in "Super-Size Me" and the lipid hypothesis. The report explores the use of logos, ethos, and pathos in the film, evaluating how Naughton presents his arguments and critiques the fast-food industry and the U.S. government's nutritional recommendations. The analysis also considers Naughton's experiments and personal experience to support his claims, concluding that the documentary aims to dispel misconceptions about fast food and its impact on weight loss. The report also includes a reference list of sources used in the analysis.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF THE DOCUMENMTARY “FAT HEAD”
Analysis of the Documentary “Fat Head”
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Author Note

1ANALYSIS OF THE DOCUMENTARY “ FAT HEAD”
Fat Head is a documentary film released in the year in the year 2009 and was directed
and acted upon by Tim Naughton. The documentary focused on the subject matter of the
refuting the documentaries named Super-Size Me and also another documentary by the name
of Lipid Hypothesis, which was a form of nutrition that was started in the United States in the
year 1950 and also was promoted in a large number of western countries of the world. This
forms the basic subject matter of the documentary released in the year 2009. The target
audience of the film is said to be the people who put their faith in the documentary of Super-
Sized Me and used to avoid eating calories.
The purpose of this essay is to make an analysis of the documentary “Fat Head”
released in the year 2009 and how it presents the logos, ethos and pathos in the
documentary as well as to evaluate the film’s effectiveness.
The essay is aiming to present analysis of the documentary named “Fat Head”. The
summary of the documentary focuses on the subject matter of the documentary Super-Size
Me and the how the director of “Fat Head” Tim Naughton, expresses his scepticism on
Morgan Spurlock and the fact that he ate 5000 calories of food in a day as stated by his
doctor. The director of the film also talks about the science and the politics of the nutrition
recommended by the U.S. Government on the basis of lipid hypothesis and claims it wrong
ion all three perspectives. The director has proved the point by going on a fast food diet by
keeping his calories to around 2000 and his carbohydrates to 100 grams without restricting
any fats. The director ends his documentary by conducting experiments into the lipid
hypothesis. The director concludes by saying that his energy and his working levels had not
suffered in spite of working on programmes with tight deadlines at the end of the month.
From the synopsis of the film, it can be stated that the film itself critiques another
documentary by the name of Super-Size Me. As stated by Kjaer (99), while the said

2ANALYSIS OF THE DOCUMENTARY “ FAT HEAD”
documentary had exposed the fast food industry to its audiences, actor and comedian Tim
Naughton opposed the documentary and showed the audiences of his own documentary that
it is possible for them to lose weight by eating the fast foods. As stated by Johnston (19), in
addition, Naughton counters Spurlock’s argument by saying that fast foods that people eats at
family owned restaurants cannot make people more obese than those of the fast food chain
restaurants because both of them are the same unhealthy foods that are eaten by the people.
He also argues that the prevalence of obesity cannot be caused by the home cooked food or
the food that belonged to restaurants because the disease of obesity had existed longer ago
than these restaurants were created.
In the conclusion of the documentary, Naughton himself says that fast foods can
indeed help the people to lose their weight just like it had helped him after he went on an all
fast food diet. The director proved his point by showing that his energy levels or work levels
still remain the same as usual even after eating fast foods and his cholesterol dropping from
222 to 209 and his LDL dropping from 156 to 130 as well as his HDL increasing from 49 to
64 (Chang, 94).
In the documentary, the director has indeed addressed the concept of the logos, ethos
and pathos so that the message can be clearly understood by the audiences of the film itself.
As stated by Bloomfield (150), the logos had been addressed by the director with the logic
that he had used to negate the claims of Super-Sized Me and Morgan Spurlock. This included
starting a fast-food diet as well as interviews with several dieticians and doctors and also by
conducting experiments.
The pathos had been addressed by encouraging the audience to continue eating fast
foods as they are not the only reasons for causing obesity.

3ANALYSIS OF THE DOCUMENTARY “ FAT HEAD”
The ethos had been addressed by the director by undertaking various experiments and
proving his point by demonstrating his energy and working levels not suffering instead of
having an all-fast food diet.
The film is said to be effective because it addresses the audiences who might think of
stopping eating fast foods because of the dangers of obesity. The film correctly imparts them
the information that fast foods can be helpful in losing fat from the body itself because
obesity had existed long before the restaurants had started their businesses (Kjaer, 78).
From the above discussions, it can be concluded that the documentary, “Fat Head”
indeed clears the misconception that the people had for fast foods leading to disease like
obesity. By proving his point through the various experimentations, director Tim Naughton
has encouraged people to both eat fast food as well as make sure that they would lose their
calories since he is of the opinion that the fast foods can help the people to lose weight as is
evidenced in his case.

4ANALYSIS OF THE DOCUMENTARY “ FAT HEAD”
Reference List
Bloomfield, Emma Frances, and Angeline Sangalang. "Juxtaposition as visual argument:
Health rhetoric in super size me and fat head." Argumentation and Advocacy 50.3
(2014): 141-156.
Chang, Hui-Jung. "Online Conversations: A Semantic Network Analysis of Cultural
Differences in Conversations on McDonald’s Corporate Facebook Sites between
Taiwan and the USA." Journal of Computer and Communications 3.06 (2015): 94.
Johnston, Emily Lind. "Agrarian dreams and neoliberal futures in life writing of the
alternative food movement." Food and Foodways 24.1-2 (2016): 9-29.
Kjær, Katrine Meldgaard. "Food-body intra-activity and the relational “obese” subject in
Super Size Me and Make the Connection." Fat Studies 6.1 (2017): 77-89.