If you think the influence of national media on adults is dangerously biased and that dominant players in the press can manipulate public opinion by managing news content, just think how vulnerable our children are. In addition to having less developed skills in critical analysis, they are bombarded with carefully crafted messages that stream from every form of media. These are messages that are designed for the juvenile psyche and they are plastered across the landscape most traveled by unsupervised kids.
A new study now shows the extent to which consumer marketing has succeeded in shaping the young minds of America. In the study, 63 3-5-year olds where asked to taste a variety of foods and indicate which they preferred. The food samples were divided into two groups: those wrapped in plain paper and those wrapped in McDonald’s branded packaging. The samples were exactly the same in every other respect. In most cases, the kids indicated a preference for the McDonald-wrapped samples.
Commenting on the study he led, Dr. Thomas Robinson of Stanford University School of Medicine said…
“Kids don’t just ask for food from McDonald’s, they actually believe that the chicken nugget they think is from McDonald’s tastes better than an identical, unbranded nugget.” And furthermore… “We found that kids with more TVs in their homes and those who eat at McDonald’s more frequently were even more likely to prefer the food in the McDonald’s wrapper. This is a company that knows what they’re doing. Nobody else spends as much to advertise their fast-food products to children.”
Dr. David Katz, the director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, adds that…
“This study demonstrates simply and elegantly that advertising literally brainwashes young children into a baseless preference for certain food products.” And concluding that… “The branding of fast foods and junk foods into the minds of young children is one of those influences. When product familiarity is breeding ill health, it is time to put a stop to it.”
McDonalds is convinced that there is no problem and argue that…
“…parents make the decisions for their children, and our research confirms that we’ve earned their trust as a responsible marketer based on decades of delivering the safest food, the highest quality toys and the kind of choice and variety today’s families are looking for.”
That’s right. McDonalds delivers the sort of safe, high quality food that has sparked an epidemic in childhood obesity and diabetes. And now we learn that the victims of their marketing tactics are suffering from diminished reasoning skills. Certainly blame can be spread around to parents, politicians, and the medical community, but it is the media that is profiting from the mind controlling campaigns of advertisers like McDonalds, and if they had an interest in serving the public, they would employ a greater measure of responsibility with regard to their advertising standards and practices.
