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You don’t have to convince a person to binge out on sugary, fatty, all around bad for you food. It typically happens due to convenience, cheap prices, and the taste of the food itself. Taking those incentives away, what leads someone to partake in these fast food meals? Or, more specifically, what leads an impressionable kid to decide that they want a Kid’s Meal from a slew of fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, KFC, Arby’s and many more? The answer lies in the restaurant’s media influencing tactics on young children. Television is the main and most obvious culprit for influencing young children’s eating decisions, as it provides a number of causes that lead to health risks. Also, an interesting perspective that could also lead to the outbursts of pediatric obesity is the phenomenon of toys in kid’s meals and snacks. Both television and the inducement of toys are leading factors in the childhood obesity epidemic that is running rampant throughout the world.
The idea that excessive amounts of television is unhealthy for your body is not new to anyone, but what exactly does watching too much tv do to your body? And at what age is it the most self-deprecating? Television is a huge benefactor to the food industry, and one of their most important target audiences is children and teens. According to UCSF’s Benioff Children’s Hospital, children mindlessly eat while watching television, tend to get less sleep than if they were not watching television, and also absorb fast food commercials that they then convince their parents to buy. In a study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 1999, children between the ages of eight and eighteen spend more time on media, whether that be the internet or television, than any other activity aside from sleeping. Television is the biggest media impactor for children because they retain the commercials and advertisements they see in between the shows they are watching. Television provides an easy distraction for children, and can keep them entertained for hours. According to UCSF’s Benioff Children’s Hospital, studies show that children who have a television in their room are recorded to have more irregular sleeping patterns, which lead to less energy, which then lead to the consumption of unhealthy foods to make up for the lost energy.
Television is also a successful medium in advertising the famous (or better yet, infamous?) Happy Meal, along with a bevvy of other kid’s meals, that also come with an important factor: a toy. Never giving the importance of kid’s meal toys much thought previous to my research, I have been surprised to see that these insignificant plastic toys have a very significant hold on children’s attention. These toys are so significant to the influencing effects of fast food that some parts of the world have attempted to ban them, such as Chile and San Francisco, California (Physicians Committee, Childhood Lost: How the Happy Meal Can Lead to Diabetes, Obesity, and Hypertension). It also surprised me to see that the before-mentioned attempts to ban toys found in fast food kid’s meals were unsuccessful. In fact, fast-food restaurants, McDonald’s more specifically, found loopholes around the bans and started selling Happy Meal toys for ten cents instead of giving them for free with the purchase of a meal (Physicians Committee, Childhood Lost: How the Happy Meal Can Lead to Diabetes, Obesity, and Hypertension). According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, in 2013 a nine-year old, Hannah, spoke up about McDonald’s Happy Meals and requested that they serve her healthier, better quality food. In reading what Hannah did, it poses the question: What do other children think of their fast-food meals? It also poses the question: How do these fast-food companies feel about their main consumers rejecting their product?
The most enlightening piece of information that I have discovered, from the Los Angeles Times in my line of inquiry, thus far, is that Disney broke their contract with McDonald’s after ten successful years of working together due to the unhealthy options that were being served. Disney is a very influential and powerful name throughout the world, therefore, there is a powerful significance to the split of the two companies. The split happened in 2006, according to Disney Loses Its Appetite for Happy Meal Tie-Ins, and since then there have been attempts by fast food restaurants to rethink their kid’s meals and provide healthier options such as fruit, milk, and grilled chicken. Because Disney made this bold choice to end a multi-million dollar business relationship due to the health risks that came along with the food they were advertising, a path formed on which parents could question the nutritional benefits (or lack thereof) of what they were feeding their children.
If Walt Disney wouldn’t eat it, would you?
"Childhood Lost: How the Happy Meal Can Lead to Diabetes, Obesity, and Hypertension." The Physicians Committee. N.p., 13 June 2014. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.
08, May. "Disney Loses Its Appetite for Happy Meal Tie-Ins." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 08 May 2006. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.
"Obesity and the Media." UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.
The idea that excessive amounts of television is unhealthy for your body is not new to anyone, but what exactly does watching too much tv do to your body? And at what age is it the most self-deprecating? Television is a huge benefactor to the food industry, and one of their most important target audiences is children and teens. According to UCSF’s Benioff Children’s Hospital, children mindlessly eat while watching television, tend to get less sleep than if they were not watching television, and also absorb fast food commercials that they then convince their parents to buy. In a study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 1999, children between the ages of eight and eighteen spend more time on media, whether that be the internet or television, than any other activity aside from sleeping. Television is the biggest media impactor for children because they retain the commercials and advertisements they see in between the shows they are watching. Television provides an easy distraction for children, and can keep them entertained for hours. According to UCSF’s Benioff Children’s Hospital, studies show that children who have a television in their room are recorded to have more irregular sleeping patterns, which lead to less energy, which then lead to the consumption of unhealthy foods to make up for the lost energy.
Television is also a successful medium in advertising the famous (or better yet, infamous?) Happy Meal, along with a bevvy of other kid’s meals, that also come with an important factor: a toy. Never giving the importance of kid’s meal toys much thought previous to my research, I have been surprised to see that these insignificant plastic toys have a very significant hold on children’s attention. These toys are so significant to the influencing effects of fast food that some parts of the world have attempted to ban them, such as Chile and San Francisco, California (Physicians Committee, Childhood Lost: How the Happy Meal Can Lead to Diabetes, Obesity, and Hypertension). It also surprised me to see that the before-mentioned attempts to ban toys found in fast food kid’s meals were unsuccessful. In fact, fast-food restaurants, McDonald’s more specifically, found loopholes around the bans and started selling Happy Meal toys for ten cents instead of giving them for free with the purchase of a meal (Physicians Committee, Childhood Lost: How the Happy Meal Can Lead to Diabetes, Obesity, and Hypertension). According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, in 2013 a nine-year old, Hannah, spoke up about McDonald’s Happy Meals and requested that they serve her healthier, better quality food. In reading what Hannah did, it poses the question: What do other children think of their fast-food meals? It also poses the question: How do these fast-food companies feel about their main consumers rejecting their product?
The most enlightening piece of information that I have discovered, from the Los Angeles Times in my line of inquiry, thus far, is that Disney broke their contract with McDonald’s after ten successful years of working together due to the unhealthy options that were being served. Disney is a very influential and powerful name throughout the world, therefore, there is a powerful significance to the split of the two companies. The split happened in 2006, according to Disney Loses Its Appetite for Happy Meal Tie-Ins, and since then there have been attempts by fast food restaurants to rethink their kid’s meals and provide healthier options such as fruit, milk, and grilled chicken. Because Disney made this bold choice to end a multi-million dollar business relationship due to the health risks that came along with the food they were advertising, a path formed on which parents could question the nutritional benefits (or lack thereof) of what they were feeding their children.
If Walt Disney wouldn’t eat it, would you?
"Childhood Lost: How the Happy Meal Can Lead to Diabetes, Obesity, and Hypertension." The Physicians Committee. N.p., 13 June 2014. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.
08, May. "Disney Loses Its Appetite for Happy Meal Tie-Ins." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 08 May 2006. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.
"Obesity and the Media." UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.