Last Blog Post: 1) Foods for Finals & 2) Final Research Paper

For my seventh blog post, I wanted to give you guys seven foods to help you power through finals!! According to Huffington Post, here they are:
1) Avocados
2) Tea
3) Fatty Fish
4) Milk
5) Yogurt
6) Nuts
7) Dark Chocolate

Here's the link to the full article:
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/spoon-university/7-brain-foods-to-help-you_b_5358180.html)


I also wanted to use this seventh and final blog post to give you guys, who won't have a chance to read my final paper, a brief insight on the topic I chose to study because it is something that affects almost all of us. For my final Food paper, I chose to research the topic of kid-targeted marketing and one of its major effects--obesity. Targeted marketing is when businesses aim their advertising efforts at a specific group of people in hopes of influencing them to purchase their products and become loyal customers to their brand. Targeted marketing exploits certain consumers' feelings, thoughts, and experiences. Most of the time, the easiest consumers to exploit are children ages 2-12. This is because they do not yet have the cognitive development to recognize the persuasive intent of commercial appeals. Marketers use this naivety as an engine to drive their marketing campaigns. Using this, they exploit children through certain media and marketing tactics. They mostly reach out to children through television and newer technologies, such as the Internet, video games, and advergames. Within these certain media mediums, they use a variety of marketing strategies to capture the attention and appeal of their audience. Some of these strategies include: repetition of the message, branded characters, celebrity endorsements, and premiums. Here's an example of how marketers use branded characters and premiums in their advertisement campaigns:

Branded characters and premiums. One of the most successful strategies of food advertising to children is branded characters and premiums. Branded characters are media characters associated with a company that promote its brand name (Calvert 2008). For example, Teletubbies—one of the highest rated public television program for toddlers—was sponsored by both Burger Kind and McDonald’s (Nestle 2002). McDonald’s gave out toys characterizing the four Telletubies with each Happy Meal. These toys are what marketers consider premiums—promotional items, such as toys, collectables, souvenirs, and household product—offered with the purchase of a product. Little toys of Nickeloden’s Spongebob Square Pants and the use of the show’s characters on packaged boxes and commercials are also examples branded characters and premiums. Advertisers use these kinds of television programs to promote their products because they are popular among children. Nickeloden, for example, is viewed in “63 million homes across America and accounted for than half of children’s viewing time, and one of the three most profitable networks in television” (Nestle 2002). Using networks like Nickeloden, Disney, and PBS Kids attracts kids.

(See Marion Nestle's book Food Politics if interested for more info) 

This exploitive type of food marketing has many consequences. One chief consequence is childhood obesity. Obesity rates among children have skyrocketed in just the past few years--obesity rates among racial and ethnic minorities especially. Racial and ethnic minorities are specifically exploited in food advertising because they watch the most amount of television among American children. Ways to combat this food marketing scheme is by monitoring what kind of television children watch, what websites they play on, and what kind of magazines they read. Combative efforts can also start at school with media literacy trainings where educators teach kids about the persuasive intent of food advertisements. Other efforts to stop the exploitation of kids in food advertising can also come from an industrial and governmental level. The Federal Communications and Federal Trade commissions can both start enforcing rules and regulations on food marketing in order to protect the health and lives of America's kids! 

For more information also check out the really cool documentary called "Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood."  

(Maybe do that over break because I know we're all swamped with work and finals week coming up.....good luck to all!!!! And remember....calories don't count during finals week...)