Why do kids love happy meals? I think most kids grab for those grease-stained bundles of joy for the plastic toy inside, and not because they're crazy about the food. I know I used to. As part of their disturbing marketing genius, fast food giants have long used toys to lure kids through their double-wide doors.
Should we as a society legislate against such marketing? According to a
recent SF Examiner article, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom doesn't think so. He vetoed a proposed legislation that would outlaw placing "incentive items," defined as any toy, game, trading card, admission ticket, or other consumer product, in food packages that contain excessive calories, sugar, or fat.
“I don’t think you can regulate how people market products without going down a dangerous path,” Newsom says in the article. “This is a whole another role of government I am not supporting.”
Newsom, a known advocate of many positive health initiatives, isn't against healthy living and eating. He's against a big government controlling business interests that play a role in these fields.
Fair enough, I guess. Living healthy shouldn't rely on government regulation. It should rely on choice. But Newsom's veto raises some good questions about government's involvement in the decision to live healthy, or in promoting health. How far should its' reach extend into the marketing practices and pockets of private interests? We no longer allow cartoon characters to advertise for cigarettes. Why should we continue to allow cartoons and toys to advertise for fatty and unhealthy foods?
What do other parents, coaches, and athletes think? Is Newsom right on? Or should he take a harder stance against the crafting marketing techniques of fast food enterprises?
- Cyrus Philbrick
SCORES Program Manager
Newsom is right on. There's a fine line between governing against dangerous marketing practices and over-intervention. Consumers should be allowed to choose for themselves what they put in their bodies, and parents, if they want to feed their kids crap, have that right. I ate plenty of fast food as a kid and am a happy, healthy, athletic adult, because my parents realized the balance of it all.
ReplyDeleteWhy not add warning labels like they did with cigarettes? And place restrictions on how close to schools fast-food corporations can advertise?
ReplyDeleteA big "THIS FOOD CAN CAUSE DIABETES IF CONSUMED REGULARLY" might make a few parents think twice. Given the diabetes rate for youth in this country, it doesn't seem too radical of an idea.
Either way, I read a great comment on another article on this topic. "If the kid wants the toy...why not just buy them the damn toy?" In other words...it's up to the parents to be strong-willed and learn to say "no" to their kids.