I have a new idea for antiobesity PSAs. Instead of generic, “Hey kids, get out and play” messages, perhaps we should be getting kid-friendly pop stars to sing the immortal playground ditty “McDonald’s is your kind of place / They serve dead rattlesnakes / They slap you in the face …”
Maybe that would counteract the effects on preschoolers described in a new study from Stanford University. Researchers found that the 63 kids ages 3 to 5 in the study thought that food presented to them in McDonald’s wrappers tasted better than identical food in unmarked wrappers—even when the foods in question were store-bought milk, juice, or carrots, rather than actual McDonald’s offerings. The study was admittedly small and was limited to just preschool-age, lower-income kids, but the findings have potentially far-reaching implications.
Dr. Susan Linn, the cofounder of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, noted in an interview on NPR’s Here and Now this morning that the study indicates a rather horrifying fact: For kids, “branding trumps actual sensory input.” Marketing to children really does have a profound influence on them, and susceptibility to this marketing apparently kicks in pretty early, she said.
As grim as that seems for the future of our steeped-in-commercial-messages kids, commenter Squirrelbait on the Core 77 Design Blog sees a silver lining: If you’re trying to get your kid to eat more veggies, raid your local McDonald’s for some wrappers, cups, and boxes. Who’s up for some delicious homegrown cucumber salad in a Big Mac box?
Terrible! We’re raising a generation of children with no culinary skills besides filling a tiny paper cup with ketchup for their fries.
Not to mention the rapper McDonald’s hired to promote its product! Yes, they fired the guy after numerous protests. But, what does that tell you about corporate decisions? A company that caters to kids, hires a rapper whose lyrics promote violence against women; drugs; etc. !! I will never take my grandchildren…or any other children to McDonalds!
My son is five and he is disgusted by the mere thought of McDonalds (loves veggies). It didn’t take a huge effort to get him to feel this way, it just takes a little bit of education about what corporations like this are all about and how they market to little kids to try to trick them into eating cheap food for a higher price. He was capable of understanding this when he was around 2 1/2.
We have always had a rule that we don’t buy any food that has cartoon characters marketing it, no matter what it is. I can only guess that small children who feel this way have seen a lot of TV unattended and/or their parents have taken them to get fast food regularly. Where else would they get the idea?
I dunno, I grew up with unblinkingly earnest ’70s health food. But we deviated at Mickey D’s once in a while. And thought it was quite thrilling when my mom made faux Egg McMuffins at home and wrapped them in decorated paper towels. There is an appeal, and of course young children are immensely suceptible to it.
So now I’m a 21st-century parent… I certainly don’t take my kid to the golden arches, and I freely admit I lack the Martha gene to cute up the food too much, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong, for an inspired parent or doting friend/relative, to make meals appealing to little kids.
I have also had the sincere conversations about how really good food doesn’t need Elmo or rainforest primates to promote it, and thank god he bought it at about the same age as Butterfly’s son (though I wonder if there’ be more pushback with an older kid?). Now I have the delightful experience of trying to convince him that it’s not so great to tell his peers, neighbors, etc. that McD’s is “cheap fake crap” – and guess whose mouth those words originally came out of? Oopsie. Nothing like having your tike blab all your biases to the world.
As a preschooler my little guy certainly has no aspirations to food showing up on his plate with branding or packaging or suchlike. But, otoh, everyone gets a different kid. Maybe there’s someone out there with an incredibly picky kid, or a family in recovery from a junk food diet. So, I definitely share the concerns everyone’s expressing here — and BTW, those people at Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood are right about practically everything, not just food stuff — but I try not to be quick to judge since everyone’s situation is different.
My kid (a vegetarian) can be a bit picky at times, but she does eat a lot of different types of veggies. What really excites her is to eat veggies from our garden, and in particular her own garden. She feels a real pride in her home-grown produce and loves eating what she grows.
She feels a real connection to her food, and even seems to prefer the produce from our CSA. She always gets excited when Farmer Bill brings the CSA box and feels a stronger connection to the foods that have a stronger connection to her life.