Balance of Food

Everything seems to be to blame for kids and obesity. There are a number of significant factors, but whether advertising is one of them is rather vague. As this article notes, children receive a lot of messages, and even remember some of them. Morgan Spurlock's experiment in Super Size Me, similar to the one used in the intro to the article, noted that people were more likely to remember the Big Mac theme than the Pledge of Allegiance. That looks good in a movie, but what does it mean? How often do adults recite the Pledge of Allegiance? I write about nutrition and food and I used to write about advertising and marketing. If you talk to advertisers, they worry their message isn't getting out there enough (even McDonald's). Yet these experts freak out if children hear a message once. Unless children are driving themselves to McDonald's or any other fast food restaurant, someone has to take responsibility. If we drew a pie chart over the number of times I wanted to go to McDonald's versus the number of times I went, the slice would be rather small. Plenty of children are exposed to those ads who go on to eat healthy diets. Advertising is messages, and messages are suggestions. They aren't requirements.