Advertising and Food
Jun. 11th, 2004 12:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsI was listening to NPR the other day-- one of their later-at-night talk shows-- and I heard a woman who had recently written a book about how advertising encourages kids to eat fatty foods and bloat up say, "Well, it's easy to blame parents."
Oh, and it's not easy to blame big companies and advertising? Of course it's easy. Companies are individual entities with limited budgets to afford lobbyists, whereas there are millions of parents and collectively they have much more time, can amass many more voices. Say something about how "parents as a group are failing their kids" and you get some dander mighty quick. It's not a nice thing to say. As one nutritionist put it recently, "Most parents of my acquaintance tell me they are constantly arguing with their children over food choices," she writes. "Many prefer to reserve family arguments about setting limits for dealing with aspects of behavior that they consider more important."
If there's anything more important to teach a child than "Don't commit slow, grinding suicide by obesity," someone tell me what it is.
My favorite quote from the show: "Over the past twenty years the family dog has also gotten progressively heavier, and I doubt he's being influenced by advertising."
So, there's this big argument about whether or not Ronald Reagan belongs on the ten dollar bill. But Jim Henley has a better idea: Ray Charles on our money. ALL our money.
Oh, and it's not easy to blame big companies and advertising? Of course it's easy. Companies are individual entities with limited budgets to afford lobbyists, whereas there are millions of parents and collectively they have much more time, can amass many more voices. Say something about how "parents as a group are failing their kids" and you get some dander mighty quick. It's not a nice thing to say. As one nutritionist put it recently, "Most parents of my acquaintance tell me they are constantly arguing with their children over food choices," she writes. "Many prefer to reserve family arguments about setting limits for dealing with aspects of behavior that they consider more important."
If there's anything more important to teach a child than "Don't commit slow, grinding suicide by obesity," someone tell me what it is.
My favorite quote from the show: "Over the past twenty years the family dog has also gotten progressively heavier, and I doubt he's being influenced by advertising."
So, there's this big argument about whether or not Ronald Reagan belongs on the ten dollar bill. But Jim Henley has a better idea: Ray Charles on our money. ALL our money.
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-11 01:57 pm (UTC)Bullshit detectors. The ability to think critically and quickly, recognize when somebody is feeding you a load of fertilizer, and the intestinal fortitude to immediately call them on it (or otherwise act to protect one's interests) is perhaps even more important than literacy. The critical thinking part will guide one thru most other problems, including both literacy and the value of one's health.
Of course, you and Omaha have already presented your little one with a prize set of them; you have little to worry about on that score.