Kids Say Food in McDonald's Wrappers Just Tastes Better
| Tue Aug. 7, 2007 2:23 PM PDT
Whether it's milk, carrots, or apple juice, kids ages 3-5 think food just tastes better when wrapped in the golden arches of McDonald's, a recent study finds. The study was aimed at low-income children enrolled in San Mateo, CA's "head start" programs, but the author of the study, Tom Robinson of Stanford University, believes the results would be similar for higher-income children. Quite simply, Robinson states, a child's sense of taste has been "physically altered by the branding."
While the extensive marketing of fast food products to young children has been decried by health advocates and in movies like Supersize Me, the fact that children prefer a branded food is probably heavily influenced by the larger advertising industry, not just McDonald's. I would guess that children prefer a branded grape juice to any generic grape juice, just as I'd guess that most people would give higher ratings to a Prada purse or Calvin Klein underwear than to their generic counterparts. Much of this can be explained by the connotations of happiness, wealth, and enjoyment that the ads convey.
On the other hand, some ads don't seem to convey much of anything, like this recent McDonald's commercial discussed by Slate.
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Comments
Submitted by Richard Aberdeen (not verified) on Wed Aug. 8, 2007 12:29 PM PDT.
20 years ago, almost nobody used a debit card. Today, due to a well-plotted out advertising campaign by Visa and Mastercard, well over half of the U.S. population uses one, in spite of the fact that using a debit card rather than a credit card, lowers the risk substantially for card issuing banks while increasing the risk for the consumers who use them. And, in spite of the fact that when someone uses a debit card, it does nothing to boost their credit rating, no matter how much they spend.
If American adults can be so easily dooped, why sould we expect the small children of such poorly educated adults to be any wiser?
Submitted by JT Barrie (not verified) on Wed Aug. 8, 2007 6:50 PM PDT.
Why doesn't somebody buy a whole bunch of McDonald's wrappers [or have some employee pilfer them] and market these wrappers to health conscious parents who can't get their kids to eat healthy. Wrap the reviled broccoli and carrots and fresh fruit in those wrappers and watch the kids pig out on healthy food. Someone is missing out on a gold mine!
Submitted by The Professor (not verified) on Sun Aug. 12, 2007 2:30 PM PDT.
Point taken, yet again. To comment; Supersize Me, yes, yet nothing drives the nail to the coffin as McLibel. See for yourself http://www.mcspotlight.org + /case
In case you haven't seen this movie yet, its priceless(in my mind)http://www.spannerfilms.net/?lid=161 . Not enough can be said here - draw your own conclusions.
Someone say supersize?
My7 year old child watched SUPER SIZE Me WHEN HE WAS 6. HE PICKED OUT THE MOVIE BECAUSE OF THE FRONT COVER LOL :) Anyway, after watching it he decided never to eat another French fry again nor touch a chicken nugget. He has stayed true to this. The other day he and his cousin went to Mc E'D's and his cousin ordered the mcnuggets and fries, he looked on with discust and said, "DO YOU KNOW HOW THOSE ARE MADE!" He proceeded to tell her in great detail. She still ate them to his dismay. I laugh about it still.
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