Gnawing over issue of obesity

This shot of Chris Carter munching on fried chicken never ran - much to his relief. Photo / Janna Dixon, Photo Research / Chris Marriner

It's the photo that never ran, and Chris Carter was most relieved. "There are always photos that we all wish hadn't been taken," he says _ and this shot taken of the then-cabinet minister munching on fried chicken while his government launched an anti-obesity campaign was most certainly one of them.

Carter, the Labour MP for Te Atatu, attended the opening of the Edmonton Road fast-food outlet on November 3, 2006, because the restaurant was in his electorate. However, the Herald on Sunday had ideas other than a puff piece of a parliamentarian supporting his local businesses.

Photographer Janna Dixon, who still works for the paper, says she was instructed "to take a picture of him eating greasy fast food". The photo shoot began innocently enough with Carter merely standing outside the restaurant. "We started off outside, and I gradually weaseled him into wearing the hat and eating chicken," says Dixon.

As Carter puts it: "They wanted me to enter into the spirit of things."

Dixon: "He obviously didn't realise what was going on."

When journalists called Carter asking whether his support of KFC conflicted with a recently launched $76 million campaign to fight obesity, he says his office was in an uproar: "My press secretary at the time just about had a fainting fit."

However, due to space constraints, only a short story ran in the next edition of the Herald on Sunday _ sans picture.

Given the passage of time, Carter is able to now laugh about the incident: "I'd just like to point out that I only ate one piece of chicken, despite being offered a bucket that had 27 pieces in it."

matt.nippert@hos.co.nz