I need to rant on something. We were in Jacksonville for the weekend visiting a friend. Monday before heading out of town, we stopped at Arby's for lunch. (I like their chicken salad wrap.) I was waiting for the boys to finish eating, so I began reading the food wrappers that I had piled on the tray. I was so incensed by what I read, that I tore off the part with the text and saved it. This is actually what they said.
[on the fry box]
"Who knew a fry could bring so much joy? Just a little slice of potato make for more than a few minutes of bliss. Who would have thought? Well as it turns out, we did."
and there's more...
[on the tray liner]
"This is risky... On the one hand, I want to drink this creamy and delicious Jamocha Shake as fast as I can. I want to inhale it. I want to make it disappear as fast as I can. I want to inhale it. I want to make it disappear in one glorious sip. In fact, I want two of them. But on the other hand the faster I drink, the more I risk an episode of brain freeze... Oh who cares. My brain will defrost eventually."
Why is no one talking about the danger involved in promoting food this way? Our government regulates advertising of cigarettes and alcohol, but not food. Truly, food is a dangerous addiction, often overlooked. Why? Are we all supposed to just use a little willpower? Against powerful marketing machine designed solely to get us to eat more, drink more, buy more. I have noticed more fast food places plastering their kids' meal packaging with images of children exercising and even advertising on the kid's cable channels along those same themes. But at the heart of it, they are still selling the same junk food.
I want to protect my kids against this. But must I shelter them completely from the television and eating at restaraunts for the rest of their upbringing? Already I hear them say that they are hungry if they even see a McDonald's billboard, or commercial, or even pass by the restaraunt. Most of these times they had just eaten a meal. It's a new dimension added to teaching the children to think rationally and live a true life. If you have thoughts on this, or have heard some advertising that makes you feel the same way, please leave a comment on the blog. I would really like to hear what you think.
2 comments:
Rage Against the Machine !!!!
It is a machine that has been carefully designed to sell sell sell.
You just have to first be aware that there is a battle going on and then also do something to compensate for it or risk the effects of not learning to say no.
As Dr. Phil says, "You can't change what you don't acknowledge"
:-) Dad
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