Obesity is the main concern for the next generation and we
all know it will be hard to entirely eliminate TV out of the modern child’s
life. Therefore, you’d only allow your child to sit and watch 30 minutes of Nickelodeon.
Nothing is wrong with that, right? Sorry
to say but more junk food companies are attacking children in their marketing.
No longer is the activity of TV watching only decreasing health but the
advertisements are advocating it.
Nickelodeon, the channel that annually has their Day of Play, to encourage kids to turn off
the TV and play outdoors all day, has about 4 junk food commercials out of 6
that typically show during a 3 min commercial break in between shows. Cartoon
Network and Disney Channel repeat the same ads. With about 3 commercial breaks
during 30 mins shows, that equal approximately, 12 junk food companies
screaming at your children to buy their product. An unhealthy lifestyle of unhealthy foods is being
taught to our kids.
These companies know exactly what they are doing, but fail
to really say “we’re advocating obesity”.
While watching Nickelodeon for a half an hour you’ll see…
1. The McDonald logo dance across the screen and a
7 years olds run to grab a happy meal and tear apart a chicken nugget. In the background
you will see his father smiling. Why? Because
the Happy Meal has apple slices and Low fat milk. The too simple addition to
the 640 calories meal, magically make the meal desirable to guardian and the
child is happy as well.
2.
The Lucky Charms leprechaun is being chased to
the end of a cliff by 4 kids. A bowl of lucky charms are dangling at his arms
and the kids manage to grab it from him while he falls of the cliff. The Kids
run with the bowl singing of the glorious shapes, colors and delight of the marshmallow
for their breakfast. Then a operator at the end of the commercial repeats “part
of a healthy breakfast”.
3.
The Trix rabbit is also being chased for his yogurt
cups by a group of 8 year olds. The kids capture the bunny and the cup and
repeat their famous line with a twist. “You silly rabbit, Trix are for kids and
with a light up spoon!” If you thought that your kids finally gave up on the 14
grams artificially flavored yogurt, you thought wrong once again. They’ll be
running back to try ever flavor of the yogurt to find a light up spoon and
collect all four!
4.
A group of second graders converse in a lunch room.
One girl pulls out her Lunchabales. Everyone is preoccupied eating their homemade
lunch. The girl opens the Lunchables and a radiant light shines on her face as
she is flabbergasted to see that her lunchables now has laffy taffys and Oreos.
Everyone crowds over her shoulders to stop and stare at the glorious sweets.
With their techniques and continuously rerunning commercials,
junk food companies have young children under their spell. Don’t be surprised
when you see you child pleading and filling your shopping cart with the unhealthiest
of the unhealthiest.
Don’t even get me started on the Krusty Krab Burgers and ice cream
variations that appear in every episode of SpongeBob and all the characters devotedly
enjoy.
Right away I hear a clear voice! I just think you could connect “Therefore, you’d only allow your child to sit and watch 30 minutes of Nickelodeon. Sorry to say but more junk food companies are attacking children in their marketing.” I got a little lost when you said the first sentence of the two..but then I understood where you were coming from afterwards. I hear the sass! It especially adds to the disgust of the public, that these companies are targeting kids like this. To be honest all of these commercials sound dangerous when you think about it. Not only are kids running towards these obesity prone foods, their “fake” parents or adult figures are promoting this. It’s crazy how the media can do this to society. In relation to what you were saying, it still happens to teens and adults today! Wendy’s and other fast food commercials use these bright colors, happy tunes, ect. To lure people in. It’s something you could think about as well. But I loved your tone and how thorough you were.
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