The Kaiser Family Foundation has just released Food for Thought: Television Food Advertising to Children in the United States, the largest study ever conducted of TV food advertising to children. It says that most food ads targeting children or teens are for candy and snacks and half of all ads shown during children’s shows are for food.
The study found that tweens ages 8-12 see the most food ads on TV, an average of 21 ads a day, or more than 7,600 a year. Teenagers see slightly fewer ads, at 17 a day, for a total of more than 6,000 a year.
Hey…do you remember that scene in Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 documentary Super Size Me where the researchers held up photos of presidents and other noteworthy or famous people and the only ones the kids could name were… food characters like Ronald McDonald? Uh-oh.
One in five (20%) food ads targeting children or teens include a push to a website, and a similar proportion (19%) include the offer of a premium, such as a game or toy. About one in ten (11%) have a tie-in to a children’s TV or movie character. And the thing is, this kind of inducement works too.
Now I’m too old to have been interested in the recent spate of movie tie-in characters and collectibles…although now that I think about it, I did ask some of my Canadian friends to try to garner me some of those NHL miniature trophies at the Canadian McDonald’s a few years ago (never got the mini Stanley Cup I wished for though). But, when I was a young teen, my friends and I would go to McDonald’s everyday after school during the “McDonald’s Monopoly” promotions and order food…so we could get some game tickets… so we could win… more food! How exciting it was to win more food “for free”! We didn’t even care about the million dollar prize for completing the game…which we later found out was rigged anyway (McDonald’s Monopoly scam).
Now, unfortunately this kind of topic is the “unfun” part of the food and beverage marketing business. The problem is, even I can tell that kids are getting fatter these days. I believe it’s for a number of reasons, but certainly not to be ignored is the effect of advertising—the fact that we are bombarded every day with an incessant barrage of images of delicious, savory, succulent, scrumptious, indulgent and comforting food options; we’re literally mesmerized with “c’mon, have some. Everyone’s doing it…. it’ll be excellent!” Even yours truly falls prey to this and I find myself on the occasional hunt for “the taint” (a term my sister enlightened me to from Douglas Coupland’s latest novel, “Jpod”).
The Taint:
Douglas Coupland wrote about “the taint” in his recent book, JPod. The taint is when, for example, someone in your office makes microwave popcorn…or brings in some stanky, nasty greasy fast food… and… the smell cloud spreads… spreads across and throughout the office like one of those phantom-monsters from a Stephen King story… it pervades your nostrils and buries deep into the cotton fibers of your clothes and of course, you find yourself feeling revolted… Another example is when you eat fast food in your car (or take leftovers home from your granny’s house) and for the next 2 days, the smell of cold french fries hangs in the car like a trans-fog. (footenote: some people actually will find themselves even craving it in a moment of weakness…a food-turn-on if you will). I wish the taint was banned. EVERYONE hates the smell of microwave popcorn except that ignoramus who nukes up a bag in the late afternoon.
So, upon reflection, perhaps we could harness “the taint”…for the sake of the fat kids children. It seems to me that “visual tainting” is most effective when it comes to food. That is, when the smell is neutralized (ie: you can’t smell TV or print ads). The beautiful photos beckon you to come forth and nosh á la Pavlov’s dog. For, without the smell, a picture tells a thousand words and that story begins to enthrall us…then she enchants us with that glorious image. Behold….the Big Mac!!!
Odor-less taint is like radon or carbon monoxide – the silent killer fattener. So perhaps…just possibly, the wicked smell of someone else’s “taint” could be enough to repel some of us from consuming these smelly processed foods. The chain of logic would then suggest we could put “taint” in the ventilation systems of our schools and thus, kids would be eager to run outside (that’s exercise). Of course, maybe kids don’t hate the taint the way we adults do. How do we help the kids?
Yep, that’s my story…and I’m stickin’ to it.
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News has been published in today’s Seattle Post Intelligence that suggests the buttery aroma of microwave pop corn could be toxic.
So perhaps in hindsight, solving obesity by way of “the taint” is merely opening a Pandora’s Box of other problems. I must say it doesn’t surprise me that the aroma from popcorn is deadly. Possibly the only thing I find to be a more violent assault of my olfactory senses and lung capacity is when you get stuck at a stop light behind one of those diesel school buses that belch blue and black fog bursts at you… you scramble to close the windows in your car (thankfully I’ve got power windows now, but there was a time I didn’t in my old school Honda Civic and had to lunge backwards across the backs seat to try to roll the windows to save my health… only to pull a muscle in my shoulder or neck that requires 10-14 days to recover from), and turn off the air circulation vents before the light turned green. Ahhhhhghhg and what about those times you missed it by even a second or two and a burst of the poison gets inside your car and you hold your breath, you can’t breathe, but the alternative is to open your window to let out the bus emissions is to open your window and let in the bus emissions… talk about the original Catch-22.
So am I overreacting (as usual)? Well, check this quote out: “The chemical — diacetyl — adds buttery taste. Government worker safety investigators have linked exposure to the synthetic butter to the sometimes fatal destruction of the lungs of hundreds of workers in food production and flavoring factories.”
Gets me wondering, you know how your microwave stinks for days, if not weeks, after you fire up a bag of microwave popcorn… is that residual stank going to do a slow burn on my lungs? What if I didn’t even make or eat the popcorn and some ignoramus at work did? Do I have any legal rights akin to second hand smoke?
That little company in Omaha (ConAgra Foods) that owns the Healthy Choice brand is apparentlys the largest supplier of the 3 billion bags of microwave popcorn sold worldwide each year and they have yet to comment on this.
I found that the Angry Toxicologist wrote a very nice blog on this topic back in April.
7 Comments
April 1, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Don’t parents have some responsibility in monitoring what their kids eat? They don’t have to take them to McDonald’s everyday for dinner. Even if they don’t cook I’m pretty sure a Lean Cuisine is better than McD’s. Heck I think they even offer salads now.
If the T.V. ads are just too hard to resist, heck, get the kids outside to play ball or read a book.
As for “the taint” I admit to succumbing to this at work. I work on the 3rd floor and there is a big old fashioned popcorn machine on the 1st floor. Whenever someone fires it up the smell quickly makes its way up to me and I drop everything and follow the smell all the way down 3 floors just like in the cartoons when the mouse is floating on air following the smell of cheese.
It really is hard to resist. That being said, I revolt from the smell of broccoli or fish when its being heated up in the microwave. I wish I could turn certain smells “off.”
All this talk of food is making my mouth water so I need to throw a bag of popcorn in the microwave.
April 2, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Meek… the allure of fast food and other iconic parts of the pop culture are truly pervasive. We have no cable in our home… a decision made because we have children ranging from 3 to 15 years of age… so just not enough common ground there for family viewing. But my kids are total experts on everything from the latest food, music, fasion craze to ‘family guy’… and yet not via our tube. Now this isn’t a post from an Amish household …we do a lot of business with Blockbuster…. to the point where the folks there nod and say hi… but the content of stuff is somewhat controlled, by us (specfically what & when). Kids are sponges though …they only need quick access to the TV networks to become experts and instantly have the lingo to back it up.. (side benefit is that my kids are very well behaved house visitors … ’cause all they want to do is watch the hosts TV for a while and therefore do not run around causing destruction… nope they just wanna get a hit from the outside…
Obese kids are a big challenge… I have one… in her case it’s because her cortisol levels are reversed day to night/ night to day a situation which was partially genetic but made worse by…. early dependancy on inhalers…. which because they are steroid based further disrupted her cortisol level… or cycle. Been to endocrinologists, pediatric specialists, naturo-paths and dietitians and it’ll be a life-long struggle to help her maintain her weight. Helping her to find her way thru a world that is getting fatter,… but doesn’t think it is has been a true eye-opener.
It is truly sad to see kids where there doesn’t seem to be any effort made to support them in not becoming obese. We love our kids so much that it is difficult to understand why we’d put them in a life-deficit situation… one where the cause was contollable. I mean folks smoking today in cars where kids are ‘trapped’ can garner some pretty viscious glares… (they’d probably be run off the road .. if not for.. the kids).. wonder how long it’ll be until society shows clear contempt for families where the kids are clearly not encouraged to remain physicallt fit… maybe its already happening.
Meek I need somewhere to watch play-off hockey cause no !%$#* cable.
J
April 2, 2007 at 3:19 pm
that’s a really good analogy about the smokers with kids in the car jason. i didn’t even think about it in that way, but you’re probably right on the money that people look contemptuously at parents who smoke with kids around and who “allow” their kids to become obese.
i can’t imagine how frustrating it must be to always want to inform/educate people on why the situation is what it is. talk about exhausting.
hopefully your daughter is able to work through the superficiality of being judged by others, although i know that’s a monumental task for anyone…especially a teenager.
i was also interested to hear from you…you without television…that marketing is sooooo pervasive that your kids know everything about tv without actually having tv.
a point i did not include in my post was that as i looked around a bit, i was finding a number of stories that told about curriculum adjustments in some schools where recess, physical education and the arts are being whacked because resources are limited and test scores are down. if kids spend all day sitting and then, with the development of video games and more tv for entertainment, then kids are being sedentary during school and after school in many cases. is this simply evolution as we no longer really need to have physically strong bodies as we are not hunters/gatherers as a civilization or is it just poor management of our biological asset?
April 3, 2007 at 10:40 pm
I’m sorry but as I read your article and saw the picture (without smell) I really craved a hamburger and fries. This despite the fact that the picture showed a really fat kid. OOPPSS!!!
April 3, 2007 at 10:48 pm
that’s normal….and the point. the damn thing looks soooooooo good…but to smell it when someone else is scarfing one down is a whole ‘nother foul experience. in fact, if you have to listen to someone eat that crap, it makes it even a hundred times worse….and thus, the sensorial taint exposure just might work at curbing our collective appetites.
June 15, 2007 at 8:42 am
Update on “the Taint” from KOMO4 News in Seattle on June 15, 2007…
This is the kind of stupid stuff that reflects so poorly on both our elected officials and the mainstream media who pander their “news” to the lowest common denominator.
Am I the only one who despises “local news”? This is setting me off on a rant here, but the incessant weather updates, all those commercials showing how much “chemistry” the anchors have together…uggh. Just give us some real news and enough of the staged bonding session.
http://www.komotv.com/news/8006942.html
SEATTLE – City employees received a memo stating popcorn could be banned from their offices following several microwave popcorn mishaps at City Hall.
Officials say burnt popcorn can force 200 to 600 employees out onto the street.
“You know, when smoke happens in a microwave, it sets the smoke detectors off in the building and then an evacuation is required,” said Seattle Facilities Director Pedro Vasquez.
An evacuation forces employees to spend some 40 minutes away from their desks while firefighters arrive and shut off the alarm. Officials say that’s a waste of time and resources.
“Well, I thought it was very funny,” said City Councilwoman Jean Godden.
Godden and others may find the heat over popcorn humorous, but the powers that be that issued the memo say it’s serious business.
“Our intent isn’t to ban popcorn, our intent is solely to get the information out there,” Vasquez said.
The city says it wants employees to listen to the “pop” to know when to stop. It says it’s just asking employees to stand by their corn.
April 3, 2009 at 6:22 pm
[...] brought McDonald’s food (which I agree with JPOD as having earned the nickname of ‘the taint.’) I wanted to say to them: “This was a nice relaxing environment till you got [...]