Kanngaroo too! Bewdiful!
yeah McDs food is usually unhealthy but it sure is tasty too.
Hadn’t been there in months and just tried out thier new healthy menu and it’s pretty damn good, think the chicken sandwich on wheat had less fat grams than a clif bar and was really tasty. The salads are good too as well as that mini fruit and yogurt parfait desert they have. Other stuff like apple wedges and the vegie burger (normally hate these but this one was actually okay) are great options too. Just go easy on the dressing or get the low fat vinagarette which only has like 40 calories. Of course I did break down last time and just got the good old double cheeseburger, 23 g of fat or something like that.
“yeah McDs food is usually unhealthy but it sure is tasty too.”
For me, one of the most interesting things in Fast Food Nation was the discussion on food additives. It turns out that most of the food sold in fast food restaurants basically has no taste due to the freezing processes. All the flavors come from chemical additives developed in labs. Kind of creepy and kind of funny. It reminds me of the old Jetsons episodes where they would eat a turkey dinner in a pill form.
“As far as the advertising to the kids thing goes I’m going to have to call bullshit on it making kids fat. It is purely the parents fault.”
Tibbs, see this movie, and I will bet you some money that you will send me an e-mail saying you changed your mind about this. I would have agreed with you before, but not now. Parents are outgunned from the day the TV set is turned on and from the day the kids go to school (the movie shows you what happens there–it ain’t pretty).
"It's time for parents to step up and start being parents instead of giving in to the pleas and whines of Mc'D's, Burger King, etc... "
You gotta see this movie. I am not as eloquent as the speakers the filmmaker interviews. The problem is, unless you live on a deserted island without a single blue tube, you (as a parent) are simply and overwhelmingly OUT f#cking GUNNED. And to such a degree that few of us can bear to admit it.
I was lucky–I grew up through middle school and high school without ANY tv and still live without it. Another problem is that most parents are not genius ad and propaganda specialists, nor do they have multi-billion dollar budgets at their disposal. And even worse (see the film, you’ll understand what I mean), most of the PARENTS are being deluged and swayed by this commercial media barrage as well.
Another thing in the movie that might be interesting to slowtwitchers is the movie appallingly illustrates what’s going on in the schools’ P.E. programs (basically non-existent) and the connection to the infamous “no child left behind” edicts.
Anyone that sees this flick will have some new thoughts about this–I guarantee it.
You still haven’t explained how the parent is powerless to keep thier kids from eating happy meals. Powerless? No. But if you don’t think advertising has a real effect on people’s behavior, you’re nuts. How big is McDonald’s advertising budget?
You point a big enough gun in anyone’s face and now you got all the ‘power’ you want.
But this enlightening and clever film is about more than that–it is about having power, but not over what one HAS, but about power over what one WANTS: (to quote a slowtwitcher) “i am right now fighting off the urge of a breakfast of 2 sausage biscuits with cheese and a large Dr. Pepper.”
And having that power is the biggest trick of them all…
You still haven’t explained how the parent is powerless to keep thier kids from eating happy meals.
The argument goes something like this. If you eat every meal you can together with your kid and all meals are healthy, you have made 1,000 positive impressions on him/her in a year. The food industry, in that same year, has made 10,000 through commercials, ads, Ronald McDonald cartoons, etc. I still think it’s a fairly weak argument since you can just decide not to let your kid watch TV, but it is pervasive.
Same with the argument of people’s own responsibility, I am all for that but you have to have a chance. People eating big Macs all the time and getting fat should have no right to sue McD’s since it is universally known to be crap, but just in this thread alone you can see how many people fall for the salad pitch, not realizing they are even worse. Can a customer be expected to know that the salads are junk? I think not, though once the truth comes out it does become people’s own responsibility again.
It’s like with smoking, in the 30’s it was promoted as a healthy way to clear your lungs, and there is no way a consumer could figure out it is bad. Smoke today, and you ought to know what’s in store.
Another issue is the education fallacy that the movie exposes. There is this school dietician who says that they offer junk food at the cafeteria but they believe in educating the students and then having them make their own choices. But there are no healthy choices available in the cafeteria, it’s all crap. But the food lobby is very powerful, it’s a bit disheartening when you see the movie.
Hey, all Cervelos are fat-free.
Gerard
I would very interested to hear your impressions…
In any case, it’ll be worth your time.
Ok one more time…How does advertising prevent parents from doing thier job? I get advertised to all the time and say no. It works great on my kids. They want all kinds of shit but I as a parent stop them from getting everything they want. Good for you and your kids. Really. But are you really saying that advertising is completely ineffective?
**Hey, all Cervelos are fat-free. **Tom D’s isn’t. . .
Sorry, just wanted to beat Tibbs to the punch! 
"....I still think it's a fairly weak argument since you can just decide not to let your kid watch TV, but it is pervasive."
I would add only to say that I think it is actually a fairly strong argument. Simple, continuous, and repetitive exposure is the first step of effective propaganda. And even among, say, your fairly educated circle of friends and co-workers, how many of them have one or more TV’s at home–98%? 99%? How many of the parents you know constantly monitor ALL the TV and commercials their kids watch? Now extrapolate that to the general Canadian, or US, or European populations. I don’t think the picture is so bright for “just say ‘no’”…
I say it’s a weak argument because people don’t take a step back. Yes, if you have a TV and if you use it as a major part of your kids entertainment, it is a strong argument since you don’t have time to monitor them all the time. But since when did the TV become one of life’s necessities? TV is to culture and education what McDonald’s is to gourmet food. You don’t need a TV to stay informed, in fact few can argue that watching 30min of TV News is better than reading the paper for 30min.
Parents have the choice to not have a TV or to rarely watch it, and I would argue that this would benefit both them and their parents. If parents make the decision to have a TV and to let their kids watch it, the argument is the same as the smoking and obesity argument; they know TV is bad for their kids (see the 10,000 impressions/yr) yet they let them watch it (unsupervised). so don’t blame TV or the advertisers, blame the parents since they are aware of this.
How many of the parents you know constantly monitor ALL the TV and commercials their kids watch?
I (and my wife) do. My 6 year old daughter never watches commercial television unless one of us is sitting right next to her. She is allowed to watch PBS and the local NJ public stations, both commercial-free TV. The only broadcast TV she watches are Survivor (with my wife), nature shows on OLN and Animal Planet, and the occasional bike races on OLN (with me there, of course). When watching the TdF, she always says “another car commercial”, and then “they’re so ubiquitous”.
My daughter already knows that commercials are an attempt to get us to want to spend money on something we might not need; we made it a game to try to identify what that something is.
Wow, you have a smart little daughter.
BUT, do think the way you manage her TV viewing is average of parenting in general? Do you think her intelligence and perception is anything near average?
I say, ‘no way’. And you gotta see the funny kids the director interviews in ‘Supersize Me’. I think those kids might be a bit closer to the average. And there is where you can see the real effects of this stuff.
Gerard, I would generally agree with what you write.
HOWEVER, if you observe what people DO vs. what people say they know, then if commercial TV is generally known to be harmful to the healthy development of children, then one must somehow conclude that 98% of (American) parents are intentionally harming their own offspring (98%=the no. of US households with 1 or more TVs).
That would be a pretty damning condemnation. So what I am trying to say is that, when the numbers are so overwhelming, I begin to suspect that something else might be at work here other than simply 'bad parents.
Gerard, I would generally agree with what you write.
HOWEVER, if you observe what people DO vs. what people say they know, then if commercial TV is generally known to be harmful to the healthy development of children, then one must somehow conclude that 98% of (American) parents are intentionally harming their own offspring (98%=the no. of US households with 1 or more TVs).
Basically yes, that’s what I’m saying. Although not all of those 98% would allow their kids to watch unsupervised. I remember growing up I had a friend who’s parents had a lock on the TV, maybe a bit over the top but it worked. And why is it so hard to believe that say 80-90% of parents intentionally harm their offspring? I assume a similar number take their kids to McDonnalds, so the argument is already made!
I was subject to tons of advertising as a kid, and i never ate that crap. Until kids are 16, they have a hard time making it to a McDs without a parent (at least in my town), and mine never went. They always served healthy food, and i grew used to that. When i became 16, i never ate big macs or anything like that, it just didnt sit right with my stomach (because of the years of a low fat diet). Same with smoking. I grew up in the height of smoking advertising, and ive never smoked a cigarette. Why? my parents did their job and told me the facts. Maybe it was because my parents never bullshited me that when they did tell me stuff, i listened. They gave me respect, never treated me like i was stupid, and so i respected what they said. Come to think of it, they were damn good…
moral of the story, parents can influence their children, more than all the advertisments in all the world… unless the kid is stupid…
Ahh, I wish it were all so simple…
When you saw the film, did you see the problem shown in the film as mainly caused by lots of bad parents? I saw a bit more than that. I think the movie also asked: do AVERAGE parents (as educated by commercial media) really have even half a chance against the big guns?
I say MAYBE they do, but it is a very, very, very slim chance at best.