Marketing Toward Children: The FAST-Food Way to Earn Billions
Marketing Toward Children
The FAST-Food Way to Earn Billions
“The adult market is stagnant; selling more soda to kids is one of the easiest ways to meet sales projections,” stated Eric Schlosser in his book “Fast Food Nation.” This quote is a terrific synopsis of Schlosser’s perception of marketing towards children. Schlosser strongly believes that direct marketing towards children has grown vastly out of hand over the years, especially in the Fast-Food Industry. He feels that these children are being exploited and that this type of marketing should be more strictly regulated. I share this opinion; children are being lead to develop unhealthy eating habits by the cynical marketing schemes of fast food companies such as McDonalds. Marketing towards children is ubiquitous in today’s society, almost anywhere you turn your head you are likely to come across some style of advertisement that is directed toward children. These are the sort of facts that draw my attention to this wide spread issue. I believe that certain items, specifically fast-food, should absolutely not be directed towards children. This is a tough subject to overlook and I am curious to see how these companies justify their actions.
Almost every fast food corporation advertises to young children. This raises several questions. What age defines a child? At what age are children capable of making their own decisions? Why are these children so vulnerable that the simple act of watching a commercial, playing a video game, or even seeing a picture of their favorite cartoon character can lead them into a downward spiral of poor decisions? These are all questions that should be analyzed when looking into this social problem. Additional discussion may arise when considering which type of products are actually thought to be damaging to market directly to children. Since I have developed a tendency of playing the devils advocate over the years this question almost immediately yields
The FAST-Food Way to Earn Billions
“The adult market is stagnant; selling more soda to kids is one of the easiest ways to meet sales projections,” stated Eric Schlosser in his book “Fast Food Nation.” This quote is a terrific synopsis of Schlosser’s perception of marketing towards children. Schlosser strongly believes that direct marketing towards children has grown vastly out of hand over the years, especially in the Fast-Food Industry. He feels that these children are being exploited and that this type of marketing should be more strictly regulated. I share this opinion; children are being lead to develop unhealthy eating habits by the cynical marketing schemes of fast food companies such as McDonalds. Marketing towards children is ubiquitous in today’s society, almost anywhere you turn your head you are likely to come across some style of advertisement that is directed toward children. These are the sort of facts that draw my attention to this wide spread issue. I believe that certain items, specifically fast-food, should absolutely not be directed towards children. This is a tough subject to overlook and I am curious to see how these companies justify their actions.
Almost every fast food corporation advertises to young children. This raises several questions. What age defines a child? At what age are children capable of making their own decisions? Why are these children so vulnerable that the simple act of watching a commercial, playing a video game, or even seeing a picture of their favorite cartoon character can lead them into a downward spiral of poor decisions? These are all questions that should be analyzed when looking into this social problem. Additional discussion may arise when considering which type of products are actually thought to be damaging to market directly to children. Since I have developed a tendency of playing the devils advocate over the years this question almost immediately yields