Food Marketing to Kids: New Approaches to Consumer Education

As a grad student I somehow seem to be on 5 million (give or take a few) mailing lists an receive a plethora of academia focused emails that are usually challenging to sift through. As challenging as it can be to give them due attention, every once in a while I come across something that catches my eye and makes it all worthwhile. I was forwarded a website about food marketing to kids, and I thought I'd share a cause near and dear to my heart.

Ruthless food marketing tactics are increasingly being focused at children, a consumer group with a lot of sway and little ability to see through the cartoon covered, website promoting, free toy give away ploys of food companies to sell their products.

Walk into any supermarket, crouch down, and look at what products are placed at children's eye level and reach, it's no coincidence that this is where you will find the majority of fat and sugar laden treats and "foods" meant to attract the attention and desire of kids.

The direct marketing of food (and in most cases heavily processed sugar and fat added foods) has become such a pervasive problem that many special interest and public health groups are trying to force government to limit and or eliminate food marketing to children. The UN for example, mentions this specifically in a Report on the Right to Food


"Adopt statutory regulation on the marketing of food products, as the most effective way to reduce marketing of foods high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, sodium and sugar (HFSS foods) to children, as recommended by WHO, and restrict marketing of these foods to other groups" 


Here's a great example of marketing to children. This comes from a company offering prizes and incentives to schools that carry their brands. This add is a perfect example of how food marketing can make almost any food appear "healthy" or a "good choice" "Better" for you chocolate snack

What I came across today seems to be a very innovative approach to teaching kids about food marketing, and how children can learn to more critically asses the images and messages being presented to them. A website, created by the Media Awareness Network, has created an Coco's Adversmarts: An Interactive Unit on Food Marketing which is a game where children design they're own food marketing gimmicks and in the process learn about how foods are marketed to them. I really like this approach because as important as banning or at the very least limiting food marketing to children is, it is far more empowering to teach them to think critically about the information presented to them. I think this would be a very powerful tool in the classroom and at home.

While I continue to support and join in the demand for regulation on food labelling and marketing, I greatly applaud efforts like these that give power through education to the consumer, especially societies most vulnerable consumers, children.

Social Media and Grad School

The fact that I happen to be blogging my way through my masters program must mean there is something to the idea of using the internet to connect, inspire or be inspired, and reflect upon my unfolding educational and professional journeys. There is power in putting your thoughts and self out for others to see, alongside a humbleness that comes when you explore the amazing things others are doing.

When I received an email from SFU graduate programs about a workshop on Using Social Media to Advance Your Graduate Career, I thought it might  be a good idea to see what others are doing and how I can use all the tools available to me keep my career and educational options as open as possible.

The workshop, consisting of four SFU grad students who are currently effectively using social media to network, further their research, and find educational and employment opportunities, inspired me to see how I can use social media to my advantage.

The piece that stuck with me the most was that if someone "looks you up", no information, is just as bad as the wrong information about you to come up on a google search. Best plan, manage an online personna that reflects what you would like people to know in a professional and educational context.
Effective social media use is new to me, but I've been inspired and am well on my way to creating an effective and professional online version of me.

Want to watch the podcast of the workshop? Here's the link Social Media for Graduate Students Workshop

What Are You Eating?

The hot topic of "Pink slime" a fantastic moniker for what is know in the food industry as lean finely textured beef, is  has been popping up in the media over concern of its uses in school lunches. Pink slime is the finely textured product of all the parts of the cow that are not fit for sale in any other form, yet sold as food in school cafeterias and restaurants across North America. While Pink Slime is likely as safe and nutritious to eat as most hot dogs, the bigger question facing the food industry is whether it should be made known to the consumer whether they are eating beef, or lean finely textured beef, as this new form is so far removed it bares its own name.

These engineered foods are receiving huge backlash in the media, and many are calling for a return to more "natural" processed foods. However, without stronger regulations on food labelling, food companies seem to find a way to keep cost saving measures and re label them in ways the confuse the consumer. Case in point the Maple Leaf "Naturals" line which contained all the same nitrates as the original meats, but labelled as nitrate free.

So natural foods are the way to go? Perhaps, but L-cysteine is a natural product found in most commercially produced bread and wheat based product, made from human hair. Or the red die that many enjoy in Strawberry flavoured drinks such as Starbucks Strawberry Frappuccino, is made from beetles.

Hungry? In fact it seems that the more one forays into the business of big food, the more the statement "ignorance is bliss" seems to ring true. Is that what modern eating has become? A choice between ignorance and knowingly eating slime, bugs, or human hair on a regular basis? Maybe, but its also another great reason to look at the foods you're eating and pick those that are in their state closest to nature, that's the best guarantee against a myriad of cost saving, flavour changing, colour producing things that may be hiding in your food.

Enjoying the simple pleasure of whole foods, prepared in a kitchen and not a factory may just be the one of the solutions to an ever increasing problem.

"Pink Slime"

Natural Deli Meats not so Natural

Are Bugs Vegan Friendly?

Human Hair and Bread!?!