CBS Food Police Go After ‘Cereal Offenders,’ Fret Over Cartoon Characters ‘Targeting’ Kids
On Tuesday's CBS Early Show, contributor Taryn Winter Brill touted a new University of Pennsylvania study on the influence of breakfast cereal cartoon characters on children: “Previous research has shown how these images influence children's selections, but now a new study reveals they also influence how the kids think the cereal actually tastes.” In the report that followed, Brill described how marketing campaigns “target” kids to sell unhealthy sugary cereals: “Breakfast cereal is a $10 billion a year business and competition is fierce…especially among children's cereal…. They target kids with cartoon characters, in commercials and on boxes, that practically reach from store shelves to grab your kid's attention.” The headline on screen during the segment read: “Cereal Offenders; Cartoon Images Affect Kids' Taste Perception.” During the report, a sound bite was featured of Kelly Brownell, Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, who declared: “The cereal manufacturers spend more than $150 million a year just targeting kids.” On its website , the Rudd Center emphasizes the importance of using broad public policy to force people to change their eating habits: Public policy, such as local, state or federal legislation, is an efficient way to help the greatest number of people make positive changes in their lives. Rather than focusing on changing people’s behavior one person at a time, effective public policy makes positive changes in the environments in which we live. Practicing more healthful behavior becomes the “optimal default” — that is, choosing a more healthful behavior becomes easier, if not automatic.
Posted by
on March 15, 2011. Filed under