New York State has shelved the idea of a tax on sugary sodas and juice drinks. But New York City’s public health officials opened a new front in their struggle against high-calorie beverages on Monday, unveiling an ad campaign that depicts globs of human fat gushing from a soda bottle.

“Are you pouring on the pounds?” asks the ad, which urges viewers to consider water, seltzer or low-fat milk instead, and warns: “Don’t drink yourself fat.”

The ad — which cost about $277,000 to develop over three fiscal years, including money for creative work and focus groups — will run in 1,500 subway cars for three months. (The $90,000 cost of the subway advertisement comes through a private donor, the Fund for Public Health in New York.)

Cathy Nonas, a dietitian who directs physical activity andnutrition programs at the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said that officials concluded, after conducting focus group tests, that a graphic, in-your-face approach would work.

“We are hoping that the biggest effect is, first of all, shock, and that the understanding is that when you drink extra calories, they will be stored as fat,” she said.

Kevin Keane, a spokesman for the American Beverage Association, the industry group that represents the makers of sodas and other sweetened beverages, denounced the ad, saying it was “more focused on the sensational rather than the substance” and would “do more harm than good.”

“The ad campaign is over the top and unfortunately is going to undermine meaningful efforts to educate people about how to maintain a healthy weight by balancing calories consumed from all foods and beverages with calories burned through exercise,” he said in a statement.

But Kelly D. Brownell, a professor of psychology, epidemiology and public health at Yale, and director of the university’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, said the ads were impressive.

“I have a feeling that this could have a pretty potent effect — the ads are dramatic,” said Dr. Brownell, who was not involved in developing the campaign.

Even so, Dr. Brownell said, the complexity of what he called “the beverage landscape” has confused consumers.

Experts say, for example, that people who eschew sugary sodas like Coca-Cola or Pepsi in favor of “sports” or “energy” drinks are no better off. The health department urges residents to stay away from those drinks, as well as punch, fruit-flavored drinks and even store-prepared coffees and teas, which often come packed with sugar. (Officials say that if you drink coffee or tea, order it plain and add flavoring.)

New York City Campaigns Against Coke and Other Sugary Drinks – NYTimes.com.

New research from the University of Illinois suggests that weight-loss campaigns that promote exercise may actually cause people to eat more.People who viewed posters suggesting that they “join a gym” or “take a walk” ate more food after looking at the posters than people who saw similarly designed posters prompting them to “make friends” or “be in a group,” the researchers found.

Subliminal words about being active had a similar effect on study participants, said psychology professor Dolores Albarracín, who led the research. “Viewers of the exercise messages ate significantly more (than their peers, who viewed other types of messages),” she said. “They ate one-third more when exposed to the exercise ads.” Those exposed to subliminal words about activity during a computer task ate about 20 percent more than those exposed to neutral words, she said.

The study, which appears in the journal Obesity, builds on previous research by Albarracín that suggests that general messages to be active can prompt people to behave in a variety of ways, some of which may have negative consequences.

Those designing public health campaigns are in the habit of trying to change one behavior at a time, Albarracín said. They should be aware that “whatever they communicate is likely to influence not only the behavior they had in mind but other behaviors that might be somewhat remotely linked,” she said.

Health Campaigns That Promote Exercise May Cause People To Eat More.