Current Events I. - Deceptive fast food advertising on children

It is common over the world that the children like to eat fast food. Various types of tasty hamburgers, French fries and soft drink; what actually is unhealthy with it? Hamburger is made from meat, it contains vegetables and French fries are potatoes. To majority of children, it seems like a fast, delicious and healthy meal and what is more, they will receive a toy as a bonus. Nevertheless, they do not realize what some of their parents do; that the overall meal is fried, highly over salted and even, that the meat is not necessarily the meat and that the French fries are not necessarily made from potatoes. Briefly, children are much more driven by the company’s marketing than by the actual quality of the product.

Similarly, one of the highly discussed current event shows, that children, who were exposed to Burger King advertisement, could not simply distinguish French fries and the healthier choice of apple slices and confused them and thus, they were not able to choose the healthier meal. According to study published in JAMA Pediatrics, no more than 10% of children could recognize the difference between those two products (Sifferlin, Alexandra, Time, 1.04.2014).

You can read more about this event in article http://time.com/45302/kids-think-apple-slicesare-french-fries

In my opinion, this idea of presenting healthy meals in fast food restaurants could be progressive and beneficial only in case, if children by themselves could recognize the difference and could choose the option better for their health, but unfortunately, has no much sense, if the children are not able to differentiate products. The article should be alarming especially for the parents, who have the main impact on their children’s diet and to decide, what their children will eat as long as they are buying the food to them.

Sifferlin, Alexandra, “Watch: Kids confuse apple slices for French fries in fast food ads”. Time, 1.04.2014 http://time.com/45302/kids-think-apple-slicesare-french-fries/

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl9uHUeWztY