Horrifying trend? Or parenting opportunity?
A new study says that preschoolers have been brainwashed by
advertising to prefer the taste of food wrapped in McDonald’s packaging.
Chicken nuggets, milk and even carrots tasted better to the children if they
were emblazoned with the Golden Arches, when compared to the same food in
unmarked wrappers. Scary? Sure. A disturbing testament to the power of a
marketing behemoth? Absolutely. But what about the bright side? Now parents
know they can print a McDonald's logo onto some wax paper and use it to wrap up
a salad, a few broccoli florets and an herb-roasted chicken breast. Hey, if I
have to choose between hoping for that unlikely scenario or giving up on
society altogether, can you blame me for picking the former? (Photo by The Food Pornographer, whose image gallery might also help discourage a steady diet of McFood.)
—Posted by David
Griner
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August 6, 2007 in Griner | Permalink
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Comments
The study compared wrappers with McDonald's branding to those with no branding at all. Of course kids (and everyone else) are going to prefer the food with the flashy packaging. I'll bet if the other wrapper had fancy graphics and cartoon characters, they'd prefer it to McDonalds.
Posted by: Sean | Aug 7, 2007 1:47:59 AM
This is a pretty week study. At first I was more concerned about the claim that you could extrapolate the results across income groups. But after reading the point of the unbranded comparison, I guess any kid would behave the same way...
Posted by: beachnobo | Aug 7, 2007 3:11:13 AM
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