Let us travel back to the past for a brief moment. Imagine you are about eight or nine years old and sitting in the back seat of your mom's minivan. It's lunch time and your stomach is grumbling. All of a sudden, you look up from your Gameboy and see the giant golden arches above all the other buildings on the road. McDonald's. You immediately beg your mom to go quickly through the drive threw, and of course she'll listen if it means she does not have to cook lunch this afternoon. A few quick minutes of waiting and you finally have that Happy Meal in your hands. The golden chicken nuggets, the pictures of Ronald McDonald, the french fries... What's going to be the toy in the Happy Meal today?
Now, let us return to the year 2011, where fast food companies are notoriously known for advertising to children all across America. Although most of the major businesses, such as McDonald's and Burger King, signed a pledge in 2006 to stop marketing to young children, the companies are taking advantage of children's malleable minds now more than ever. The ads companies put out cause American children to beg and plead to their parents to buy them a kids' meal. Unfortunately, most of the time parents give into their children's desires. We all know the terrible effects of fast food products and more people today are taking those effects, like cardiovascular disease or hypertension, into consideration. But, children do not understand the negative effects of an unhealthy diet. So, the McDonald Happy Meal sounds and quite appealing to them. If fast food companies discontinued targeting children in their marketing campaigns, less children would want to consume such foods, and hopefully cease to recognize the symbols associate with the restaurant which cause them to want to eat a kids' meal for dinner.
*Why do fast food companies target children?
*What happens because of this?
*Why should they not target kids?
Great intoduction. Really gripping. And as a health-nut, I love your topic. Can't wait to see more
ReplyDeleteYou really brought me back to the times where I actually ate that food when I was little. I like how it touches on so many things: the parents role in their kids diet, the fast food stores, and children and health literacy.Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI love your topic! I feel like alot of people are going to be able to relate to it and find it interesting. I can't wait to see how your final paper comes out :D Good luck!
ReplyDeleteBy looking at the patterns of advertisements fast food companies create, we can see how the big corporations clearly target children; this is important because these advertisements casue children to want to eat fast food which helps big fast food companies continue to bring in money, giving them more power.
ReplyDeleteNice work, Alex! I really like the way you open your post with the experience of being a child -- the Gameboy, the excitement over the toy. You really draw in the reader. With regards to the questions at the end of your post, I think these are all important for you to keep in mind as you research, especially since if you carry this topic through to the end of the semester (which I hope you do!). For this paper, I suggest honing in first on the very FACT that fast food companies target children -- how do we know that they do? what evidence is there for this? How did it get this way? And then, towards the end of your paper, gesture towards the question of value -- is this is bad? -- without quite answering it. We'll discuss how to end with a broader question in class. As for your magic thesis sentence, I was SO happy to see that you included "we can see how the big corporations clearly target children," which shows that you realize the importance of setting this up as a fact in your paper. As discussed in class, you'll want to hone in on what exactly you mean by "power" -- economic? as a marketing superpower? Also, it might be useful to ask how children gained the kind of bargaining power they now have. That is, did parents always spend THIS MUCH money on their kids? (We can talk more about this if you like, since I took a class in college about the increased economic power of children). What's going on in parents lives that they no longer have time to cook? (This might get too out of hand, but all these questions are important to consider as part of the background that informs you inquiry) Overall, this post and your sentence are a great for getting you started on research, and I look forward to reading how you narrow down your thesis as we continue to work on this paper.
ReplyDeleteFinally, check out this article I found today on NYTimes.com:http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/how-to-make-oatmeal-wrong/?src=me&ref=homepage
It's about McD's oatmeal... not as healthy as they would like us to believe.