The images are striking: Overweight boys and girls staring somberly from billboards and online videos, real-life embodiments of the blunt messages alongside.

“Chubby kids may not outlive their parents,” for example. Or: “Big bones didn’t make me this way. Big meals did.”

The ads – part of a new Stop Child Obesity campaign in Georgia – won some enthusiastic praise for their attention-grabbing tactics. But they also have outraged parents, activists and academics who feel the result is more stigma for an already beleaguered and bullied group of children.

“Billboards depicting fat kids are extraordinarily harmful to the very kids they are supposedly trying to help,” said the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, which called for the billboards’ removal.

The Georgia Children’s Health Alliance, which created the ads, said they were necessary to jar parents of obese kids out of a state of denial that their children had a problem.

The furore reflects a broader nationwide phenomenon as states, cities and the White House itself – led by first lady Michelle Obama – expand efforts to curb obesity.

For all the public support of these efforts, there’s also a vocal and passionate corps of sceptics and critics worried that widespread discrimination towards the overweight and obese will only increase.

“Stigma is not an effective motivator,” said Rebecca Puhl, a Yale University psychologist who is a leading expert on weight discrimination.

“Whether children or adults, if they are teased or stigmatised, they’re much more likely to engage in unhealthy eating and avoidance of physical activity.”