Although it leaves a rather, um, unsettled sensation in our stomachs, it’s hard to argue with the ad’s effectiveness – rarely have I felt less like drinking a can of soda, or, for that matter, eating gravy. We decided to round up some past examples of anti-obesity ad winners – along with some losers that just don’t get the message right.

WINNERS:

This highly effective Australian PSA uses CGI to show, in real time, how a lifetime of bad decisions can take a toll on a person’s health. If there was an awards category for most impressive anti-obesity special effects, this one has it in the bag.

This surprisingly tense Mediawise spot takes on child obesity and video games – with a creepy payoff and a child actor that really nails the video-game dead-eye.

The Ad Council’s cutesy ad campaign touts the physical advantages of exercise with a series of gags about losing body parts. It may not have the shock value of a gallon of fat – but, on the up side, it actually manages to make us laugh.

LOSERS:

How not to convince children to eat better food? Start a campaign to replace the sundae with a “Saturday” – and make it look like a penis nestled in a bowl of foam.

These bizarre Thai health ads promoting what must be extraordinarily ineffective forms of exercise are bathed with such a sickly blue glow (and, in one case, a depressing suicide plot) that it just makes us want to lie down on the couch with a bottle of Pepto Bismol.

This 80’s public service announcement teaches parents to shower their kids in love, not cookies – but its kid-friendly cartoon format probably caused a generation of children to eat their way through their parents’ divorce.

• In the past few days, the folks at Digg were all over this clip from “Buy Me That” — a children’s consumer awareness-program — in which a food stylist explains how she sells hamburgers on TV using undercooked meat, branding, strategic cutting, and toothpicks. There’s something about the tinted early-nineties glow of the footage that makes her explanation seem extra-perturbing.

• This fall, the UK’s Good Food Channel commissioned Carl Warner and a team of food artists to re-create London’s skyline using 26 different kinds of fruits and vegetables (including asparagus, watermelon, broccoli and pineapples). The result is genuinely spectacular and oddly serene (via Gawker.tv):

• The food TV moment of the week was unquestionably Bravo’s “Top Chef” finale, which gave viewers the climactic Voltaggio brother showdown this entire season had been building up. In case you missed it, relive the Voltaggios’ moment of reckoning (via NYMag):

• I don’t know about you, but every time I pick up my meal at the drive-through, I get completely overwhelmed by the idea of holding multiple (multiple!) food items, separately, in my hands, at the same time — and inevitably end up spilling my super-size soda on the passenger seat next to me while my children look on in terror. Now if only there was some sort of jingoistic, state-of-the-art tray that could celebrate America while helping me avert this disaster … (via Buzzfeed)

• Clara Cannucciari, a 94-year-old living in Skaneateles, N.Y., has a fascinating YouTube stream in which she shows viewers how to make dishes she remembers from the Great Depression. (She recently came out with a cookbook, “Clara’s Kitchen,” on the subject.) Here’s one of her most charming videos, in which she makes autumn apples with sugar and cinnamon:

• Fourfour blogger Rich Juzwiak’s odd, flat-faced cat Winston has a complex relationship with food. He really seems to enjoy eating it, but inevitably something goes very wrong along the way (and, sometimes, a lot of food ends up stuck to a wall). This past week Winston developed a hankering for yogurt. Admittedly, the video starts off slowly, but stick with it, because soon things take a dramatic turn for the aww.