Need to sell your bad food, and wasteful products? Use Television. Problem solved.
Several years ago, my husband and I choose to not have cable TV. We own a television, but shows comes from internet video streaming services, and good old fashion discs. However, we recently started watching a new TV show online, but from a free service, that contains commercials, and I was amazed by the advertisements. Perhaps I had forgotten how bad they are, or just about them in general. These ads were for crappy food, drugs, and even toxic cleaning supplies. One crazy commerical was using Clorox “Scrub Singles.” Honestly, what is wrong with just using a clean sponge, or damp cloth that you can reuse. Clorox “Dust Wipes?” Why can’t we just use something more environmentally safe, and effective.
Now, when it comes to the food commercials, I figuratively have to leave the room because I cannot believe that people choose to eat these items. Advertising works though, and people feel that they are a simpler, and more effective way to eat even if these products are not, actually. I wonder if some of these products can even be called food as I think they are more chemical stabilizers than anything else. And yet these ads make them appear good for us, or that they’ll make us feel good if we eat them. There was one ad that I caught, and I cannot even remember what it was for, but it said “Natural...” A word that they sure highlighted very frequently in the ad, but I don’t remember anything being natural about the product other than the labeling/copy looking green, and having that word.
A recent study done showed that “80% of the food products advertised to children fall into what it calls the poorest nutritional category set by US Department of health and Human Services guidelines.” The food industry adopts voluntary standards. But since they are self-regulating, those standards in question are still subpar, and are not even universal. However, there has been next to no improvement in the nutritional status of these food items. I understand that apples, or nut butter, for example are not cool enough to have their own cartoon figure, but we as parents, doctors, and friends need to be encouraging young kids to eat whole foods rather than packaged, and processed chemicals disguised as food.
Parents can be challenged to get their kids to eat good foods. I have a lot of picky young patients who think chicken nuggets, pizza, and frozen meals are all acceptable for food. Their idea of a vegetable is ketchup, or snaps pea crisps. We learn, and model, our eating habits after what we are taught, and what we see. If we don’t give our children good examples, and help to modify what is, and isn’t, considered healthy on the commercials then we are doomed to continue to have overweight, diabetic children who are on more and more drugs by the time they reach adulthood. Make your dollars at the supermarket count, and buy whole foods rather than packaged/processed food.
As an aside, it helps to buy local, and organic fresh foods when you can. Just look for what is on sale. Not necessarily in direct comparison to conventionally grown fruits and veggies, but compared to the normal organic food prices in your area. Maybe even try going a week, or two, just watching paid streaming video (Netflix, Amazon, but not Hulu as it has ads even if you pay), instead to give yourself that “shock” of seeing how bad Television’s commercials really are when you go back to regular TV.
Source: ConsumerAffairs.com