Need more cheering up:
http://www.commercialalert.org/index.php/category_id/5/subcategory_id/72/article_id/236"Marketing Junk Food and Soft Drinks to Kids
McDonald's first national ad campaign, in 1967, was an unexpectedly huge success: 10 million kids wrote in to pick floats for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. From then it was off to the races. McDonald's advertising director put this battle cry on his wall: "Early to bed / Early to rise / Advertise / Advertise / Advertise."(18) Since then, McDonald's has been masterful in its use of beloved characters to sell its high-calorie fast food. Among others, McDonald's has employed Winnie-the-Pooh, 101 Dalmatians, Nemo, Furby, Tarzan, and Beanie Babies to sell its Happy Meals.
Fast-food marketers such as McDonald's and Burger King have reshaped the diets of American parents and kids, and the rise in fast-food consumption has paralleled the boom in the incidence of childhood obesity. Between 1977 and 1995, the percentage of meals and snacks eaten at fast-food restaurants doubled. This has been especially devastating to the health of children. Because fast food is typically so high in sugar, fat, and calories, these meals can quickly add pounds to a kid's waistline. In a study published in the International Journal of Obesity, researchers found that, compared to adolescents who did not eat at fast-food restaurants, boys and girls who ate fast food three times in the previous week had astoundingly higher calorie intakes: 40 and 37 percent, respectively.(19)
The increase in soft-drink consumption has been similarly damaging to children's health. Between 1977 and 1996, soda consumption among 12 to 19 year olds increased 75 percent for boys, 40 percent for girls.(20) According to a study in The Lancet, for each can of soda drunk each day, a child is 1.6 times more likely to become obese, all other things held constant.(21)
Soft-drink companies use every trick in the book to hook kids on their high-sugar, caffeinated products. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have been especially effective in marketing to children. Coca-Cola paid Warner Bros. an estimated $150 million for global marketing rights for the film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.(22) "The Coca-Cola Company recognized the wealth of possibilities inherent in [Harry Potter] for engaging the world's adults and children," explained Brad Ball, then President of Domestic Marketing for Warner Bros. Pictures, now Warner Bros. Entertainment. (23) Product placement, too, is great at implanting brands in the minds of children. When the movie E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial featured E.T. eating Reese's Pieces, sales of the candy shot up 65 percent; Hershey, maker of Reese's Pieces, had to put two factories on 24-hour production schedules to meet the demand.(24)
Product placements can now be found in nearly every medium children watch, and have taken over commercial television. Coca-Cola has been heavily featured in product placements on American Idol and the teen-targeted, short-lived Young Americans, which the New York Daily News called "a slick, thinly disguised commercial" for Coke.(25) Pepsi is featured heavily in the WB network show Pepsi Smash, and Mountain Dew was showcased in the CBS reality shows Survivor and Survivor II.
Product placements have even spread throughout children's books. Junk foods now featured in children's books include Hershey's chocolates, M&M's, Froot Loops, Reese's Pieces, Oreo cookies, and Skittles. "It's not that these books resemble advertising-they are advertising," said Kate Klimo, vice president and publisher of Random House Books for Young Readers.(26)"
. Three meals out of twenty one isn't that excessive on the face of it though is it? A pizza once or twice after work because you haven't got time to cook, a trip to McDonalds to treat the kids whilst shopping. You don't have to be a candidate for Jerry Springer to fall into the trap. Christ, who doesn't have three fast food meals a week?
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