News Reporter
Think Outside the Bun®. Obey Your Thirst®. What Would You Do For a Klondike Bar?®. We’ve all been exposed to these and similar slogans on television and the radio and in magazines and roadside billboards. We can sing along with the jingles and remember the most obscure of product names. Yet the humorous ability of the average adolescent to summon at will a slew of product names and market brands is truly a frightening testament to the effectiveness of commercial advertising. Since early childhood, we have been flooded by an onslaught of by advertising for all sorts of merchandise. Usually, the outcome is as innocent as a Buzz Lightyear action figure in our Christmas stocking or a pair of name-brand sneakers in the coat closet. But the promotion of one consumer product has proved so insidious that it has cost countless lives and endangered millions of others. What is this dangerous mystery item? Junk food.
Face it—America is a capitalist society. It’s a competitive world out there, and, in order to be successful as a business, one must make provisions for the future. It’s also no secret that young children and teenagers who are still in their formative years are especially impressionable. By directing much of their advertising towards young people, fast food companies succeed in hooking consumers at a young age and ensuring that kids will mature into faithful customers by the time they are old enough to make their own financial decisions. It’s that simple.
Yet in recent years, the formidable threat posed by child obesity has become an explosive epidemic as the number of overweight Americans has skyrocketed. According to a study conducted by the American Obesity Association, in 2000, 15.5% of adolescents ages 12-19 were obese, as were 15.3% of children ages 6-11. In the past six years, those numbers have only increased further. The number is even larger for the American population as a whole: nearly one in three people living in our country is obese.
Fast-food chains are largely responsible for these numbers. As the CEO’s of junk food companies maintain, what we eat is up to us. If we eat unhealthy foods and become overweight as a result of our bad nutrition choices, then we can only blame ourselves. And on the most basic of levels, this is true. Yet junk food companies are perpetually finding new ways to influence us—mainly, through advertising. By portraying their foods as healthy and delicious and by associating their products with celebrities and popular items, junk-food companies lure in new customers. By producing foods that are addictively sweet and salty, they succeed in ensnaring us. These tactics are dangerous enough on their own—but when they are directed towards children, the results can be catastrophic.
As advertisements become increasingly efficient, the number of overweight Americans also rises. Companies have begun to eliminate complicated phrases from their ads in favor of more enticing pictures of foods; witty slogans and facts about the products are being replaced by smiles and happiness. By eliminating words and sentences, companies make their advertisements more accessible to children who have not yet learned to read.
Junk-food companies are also able to take advantage of children’s adoration of cartoon characters and celebrities. Fast-food chains release ads in which sports stars and superheroes promote their product knowing full well that kids, in their everlasting quest to imitate their role-models, will buy (or get their parents to buy) these products. The same applies to toys such as those found in McDonalds’ Happy Meals. Children often beg to be brought to McDonald’s not because they enjoy the food, but because they are bent on securing the latest Happy Meal collectible. Yet once a child becomes accustomed to consuming junk-food on a regular basis, it is extremely difficult to make a change in eating habits.
Even more detestable, however, is the practice of intentionally misleading children into thinking that junk foods are healthy. Fast-food advertisements often feature characters who appear wholly fit and healthy despite endorsing an unhealthy way of life. And when kids regularly associate junk foods with healthy people, they become unable to connect unhealthy foods with their unhealthy consequences. Companies make no effort to educate the public about healthy eating, and only include disclaimers with their product when compelled by law. And why would they? Such warnings would only prove damaging to business. Hence, kids ignorant of calories and saturated fat are only able to judge the foods they eat on the basis of delectability—something that fast-food companies cash in on.
Long a major contributor to the perpetuation of obesity (through its many partnerships with junk food companies and fast-food chains) the Walt Disney Company has finally joined the uphill battle against child obesity by promising to stop lending its characters for the endorsement of junk food. Rather, Disney pledges to use its cartoons to teach nutrition and healthy eating. Disney has promised to stop lending its characters for the endorsement of junk food, and rather use them to emphasize the importance of nutrition. No longer will Disney characters grace the covers of unhealthy food products, and McDonalds’ Happy Meals will have to make due without Disney toys. Fast-food chains will need to find substitutes for Disney characters, or otherwise modify their menus.
Though Disney’s move is certainly a step in the right direction, much remains to be done. Other popular cartoon giants such as the makers of My Little Pony, Neopets, and Pokemon, need to withdraw from the fast food market. And companies like McDonalds who in the last few years have added yogurt and salads to their menus need to start offering similar alternatives to kids. But most importantly, junk-food chains need to start depicting their products in an accurate and fair manner. Until these things happen, America will have a hard time curbing its addiction to fast food. It’s time for the health of the masses to take precedence over the profits of private corporations.
