Money, it's what makes the world go round. At least for big businesses it does.
Marketing is the key for them; for if they don't have anyone to sell their product to, then
they won't make any money. So what is fair in marketing is it Joe Camel looking cool,
those cute polar bears in the Coke ads, or Snickers REALLY satisfying? Well if
marketing were concerned with health issues, then they probably would tell you the
truth about what their product does or better yet does not do to your body. Instead
junk food and fast food advertisers usually show a very appealing product that even
appears to be fun when you eat it. Who are they marketing to? Adults, no our children. Every year these advertisers spend $15 billion dollars marketing to children under the age of twelve. These false images are a problem and have a direct relation to childhood obesity. While they are not the only factor, they will be the factor that we focus on.
According to The Center for Disease Control, overweight children and adolescents are more likely to become obese as adults. Obesity as an adult could lead to serious problems like high blood pressure, osteoarthritis (a degeneration of cartilage and its underlying bone within a joint), dyslipidemia (for example, high total cholesterol or high levels of triglycerides), type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, and respiratory problems. None of which any of us want our children to end up with, yet we still add to McDonald's billions served and justify buying "Happy" meals for our children because we can get apples( with caramel dip),a healthy choice, instead of fries for them. This image of happiness with its not so nutritional or healthy alternatives is a bad way to teach children good eating habits. Even in our elementary schools soda is being sold to third graders at lunch. Why because the companies don't care about the consumer only that it is getting consumed. A child is usually not concerned with what he/she eats, as long as it tastes good to them. Soda, extra sweetened breakfast cereals, cookies, and other sugar or high fructose corn syrup filled treats are favorites among the kiddies since they see a lot of these products on commercials. For instance an Oreo Pizza commercial currently airing in which an Adult and a child both have mustaches from the dessert pizza, this commercial is designed to make you laugh and to get children to ask for it when their parents are ordering pizza. It also associates a fun time with eating their unhealthy product. Obviously the media is unconcerned in these instances due to their unprecedented love for money.
From a functionalist perspective the stability of our society is directly related to the epidemic of childhood obesity, for if our children are overweight they will be targets of ridicule thus damaging their self esteem and making them less productive in life. From a conflict perspective the marketing techniques help to promote social inequality and benefit businesses at the expense of our youths health, mentally and physically, thus impairing our societies scarce resource of human capital. From a symbolic interactionist perspective these representations in the media teach our children a poor definition of what are good eating habits that could stay with them their entire lives. From a post modernist perspective our society will be negatively characterized by these forms of consumerism, and mass marketing techniques.
So Socially obesity isn't as accepted as it is in the media. The National Center for Health Statistics label childhood obesity as the fastest growing cause of disease and death in America, with the rate tripling over the past thirty years. The media ignores this, you won't see a whole family of obese people buying food at a McDonald's in any of their commercials. You will on the other hand see food pyramid posters hanging in your local health department and doctors offices, telling you to eat a certain amount of vegetables but you won't see any commercials for vegetables during Saturday morning cartoons. Ultimately only you can decide what you or your children eat.
