Did anyone see "Dateline" tonight?
It was all about the food industry and the US' obesity problem. Part of the show discussed the marketing of food to children. In one segment, they gave preschool aged kids the option of a cupcake with Spiderman frosting and another with a flag. No surprise, the kids choose the one with Spiderman. They then offered the kids a banana loaded with "Dora" and "Blues Clues" stickers or a plain cupcake. They choose the banana. Then, they offered them a plain banana (no stickers) and a rock with the stickers...each one of the kids choose the rock. They made it clear that the rock vs banana was to eat for breakfast and the kids still choose the rock. Sad!!
The show also mentioned a proposed law that would require fast food places to require calorie and nutrition information for each item.
One other thing that was interesting: Skittles, Oreo's, etc. have websites that are marketed to kids. These sites are full of games, which seems innocent enough, but in the background of all of these games are ads for all of their crappy products.
I just thought the whole thing was disgusting and really sad.
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