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Obese man spokesman for Heart Attack Grill

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Published: Nov. 16, 2010 at 6:47 PM

CHANDLER, Ariz., Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A 570-pound man said he was appointed spokesman for an Arizona restaurant, The Heart Attack Grill, whose motto is "a taste worth dying for."

Blair River, 29, who is 6 feet, 8 inches tall, has been featured in online video advertisements for the restaurant in Chandler, for which he is paid $100 per hour, ABC News reported Tuesday.

Customers who weigh more than 350 pounds eat for free and the fries are deep-fried in lard at the Heart Attack Grill, ABC reported. The menu lists a "quadruple bypass burger" and "flatliner fries."

"The fat content of the cream is so high that if we have a quarter percent more, it would churn to butter in the ice cream machine," Basso said of his "butterfat shake."

"(Owner Jon Basso) was looking for people over 500 pounds to do a commercial. I said, 'Hey, I'll do it,'" said River.

"We're in the front lines of the battle against anorexia," said Basso, 45, who's "normal weighted," ABC said.

"This is me. If it's not me, it's going to be another guy. It doesn't bother me. I don't feel exploited or anything like that," River said.

"This is like restaurant porn. Somebody who is 350 pounds and over and eating this way is just digging his grave with a spoon," said Keith Ayoob, director of the Rose F. Kennedy Center's nutrition clinic in the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

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