One of the biggest failures of government officials and the public is the failure to recognize the long term effects of their actions and over-emphasize the short term results for certain groups. Be it in economic or social issues, this is the one area where lobbyists, politicians and the mob will probably never cease to fool themselves.
Today we have a perfect example of such.
Do you remember Joe Camel? Joe Camel was phased out of Camel's marketing campaign because of pressure from lobbyist groups, the Federal Trade Commission and Congress itself. Clearly his influence on children smoking was too great (just like all those cartoon ads we see for marijuana, cocaine, ecstacy and heroin) and it was necessary to implement a government-based attack on the R. J. Reynolds tobacco company. Of course doing so would be in the best public interest and would never have any long term effects on the advertising industry outside the realm of cigarettes. Of course not.
New target acquired
"If voluntary efforts by industry fail to successfully shift the emphasis of television advertising during children's programming away from high-calorie, low-nutrient products to healthier fare, Congress should enact legislation to mandate this change on both broadcast and cable television." - Institute of Medicine
The latest enemies of the state, Spongebob and his popular cartoon friends, are undoubtably on the government's no-fly list since they are clearly actively involved in domestic terrorism. The Institute of Medicine is threatening the food industry and its marketing friends with pleas to Congress to regulate how food is advertised. Basically they're saying "no more cartoon characters".
"US researchers said for the first time on Tuesday there was a clear link between advertising and young children's appetite for junk food" - msnbc
"[We] found strong evidence that television advertising influences the food and beverage preferences and purchase requests of children" - IOM
They're right about one thing.. advertising is probably affecting what people buy. That's definitely something we needed a study on.. I'm really glad they brought that to my attention, because I never really thought about how marketing targets people to buy certain things. What a new concept. Someone should let the marketing people in on this one too, because I'm sure they'd like to know.
They're right about two things! I'd have to agree that junk food.. fast food.. other such foods are not good for people. I'm glad they let me in on that one because, like my igorance about marketing, I was completely unaware of the bad effects of things we publicly and uniformly classify as junk food.
So back to the point. We all know that we are targeted everyday by advertising for things we don't need, things that will be bad for us, things that will harm our environment.. so why are we targeting the food industry with threats of government coercion? Shouldn't people be free to choose what they think is right for them? Shouldn't parents be able to help their children decide what is best for their diets? Isn't that the job of parents?
Clearly the food industry is over-saturated in foods packed with unhealthy saturated fats, tons of empty calories, preservatives and more. If you want to combat it then do it with boycotts. Do it by starting your own business of creating or helping someone else propagate healthy food. Start a new market niche and profit off of it. If people really want it then they'll buy it.
And don't tell me you can't help spread the word of eating healthy in some way. Start a website, start a group, tell your friends, tell your neighbors. Hey while you're at it, why not tell your children too? And afterall, you're a consumer.. you have the greatest vote of all - your money.
In a free market society bad things can often lead to the profitability of good things. It would be nearly impossible for anyone to argue that healthy lifestyle products and services in this country is a dead market.
Why not regulate?
You kill off innovation. You kill off technology. You kill the market. You create a precedent for the government to take away more of your rights. You kill off the bonding of the community that together could fight and win something it believes in through choice instead of force. You kill off freedom.
You may think that regulating cartoon characters out of advertising is just a harmless piece of legislation, but it really isn't. Your freedom to choose is one of your most important freedoms. Every time you give it up your government is one more step closer to making another choice for you.
So why do kids eat poorly? Oh who knows. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that adults do it too. You wanna help your kid? Set an example; you don't need government to tell you what to do.. do you?
