The food industry’s targeted advertising promotes unhealthy eating habits that resulting in obesity.
The food industry wants people to think that their advertising of products is good for you, but in reality they are not. Most of us don’t even know what we are consuming from eating their food. If people knew what was in their food that the food industries are promoting/advertising, they wouldn’t want to eat it. There can be given facts on this and maybe even some proof as to what you don’t know about the food industry, but also what you are consuming in your body at the same time. Some of the products that they advertise on TV, Billboards, and etcetera, you actually start to believe that they are good products until you start to do your research
…show more content…
Now when you actually start doing your research on this kind of topic, you begin to find out a lot of things that you didn’t know or that you thought you knew about when it comes to the food industry. “Manufacturers who need their tomato sauce to be thick enough not to leak out of its plastic carton and just a little bit glossy, so that it doesn’t look matt and old after several days in the fridge were sold the advantages of Microlys, a “cost effective” specialty starch that gives “shiny, smooth surface and high viscosity”, or Pulpiz, Tate & Lyle’s tomato “pulp extender”. Based on modified starch, it gives the same pulpy visual appeal as an all-tomato sauce, while using 25% less tomato paste. Blythman, Joanna. "Inside the Food Industry: the Surprising Truth about What You Eat." Http://www.theguardian.com. N.P., 21 Feb. 2015. Web. 29 Oct. 2015. Somehow the food industry has their way of fooling people and making their food taste so good that you have the slightest idea of we are putting in our bodies let alone the food that’s being consumed. Also, stated in the article, “For the salesman, this preparation was a technical triumph, a boon to caterers who would otherwise waste unsold food. There was a further benefit: NaturalSeal is classed as a processing aid, not an ingredient, so there’s no need to declare it on the label, no obligation to tell consumers that their “fresh” fruit salad is weeks old”. Blythman, Joanna. "Inside the Food industry: the Surprising Truth about What You Eat." Http://www.theguardian.com. N.P., 21 Feb. 2015. Web. 29 Oct.
The sole purpose of a company is to offer goods and services while making a profit. If people have a liking for food products with so many unhealthy items and are willing to buy them, the companies have no obligation to reduce the amount of added ingredients. The companies aren’t the ones forcing the public to overeat. However, these companies shouldn’t market their products to people who they can easily exploit like children and those who are penurious. Michael Moss, author of the article “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food” interviews several people who worked for certain big brand companies and gives us an abundant amount of information on how the food companies make and market their food to “get us hooked”.
Due to false advertising, I feel that certain food companies are being careless in trying to make people buy their products in order to make money in the quickest way possible. My only suggestions for this situation are either the companies to tell the truth about their products, or stop advertising completely. If the companies could spend more time researching the effects of their products, then they could make improvements to their foods or maybe find alternatives to the ingredients. That way people can make the right decisions in buying what is best for them and their children. Thank you for your time.
This can be due to people like celebrities or nutritionists that are advertising single nutrients like Vitamin C tablets that will make people healthier, which is allowing the food industry to take the promotion of these single nutrients, and advertise to the people that just don’t know. This benefits the food industry by being able to take advantage of people by selling them products that will be “healthier” but not so much due to the amount processing. An author named David Freedman wrote an opposing article titled “How Junk Food can end Obesity”. Simply, we can see the already conflicting views between the two authors, however, Pollan has the more realistic view than Freedman that processed foods can cause more adverse health effect due to low income as
By accepting misguided information about the food that is being purchased from the marketers, consumers are letting the food industry shape buying patterns, even when it is not to their benefit. Pollan supports this claim when he writes, “With all the variety and constant stream of messages from the food industry and media, how can we make up our minds” (86). Pollan’s quote elaborates on how the the constant stream of messages affects what Americans put into their bodies.
Just as Pollan mentions, the industries profit from people making poor choices. One of which is choosing processed foods over whole foods. Given the environment people live in, it is difficult to make healthier choices because processed foods, such as canned or frozen fruits and vegetables, packaged foods, fortified foods, and easy-to-prepare foods, constitutes of more than 75% of foods in grocery stores. Foods that go through such processing lose many of their nutritional values, while industries themselves believe that by processing food they are actually trying to preserve its nutrients and freshness. The public falls for this
In the article “Unhappy Meals,” Michael Pollan gives an ordinary person an overview of what food really is. Pollan starts out by saying, “If you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims.” I feel like Americans today go out of their way to find foods that make health claims, because they truly believe what the food distributors are marketing. So many people trust everything that health food distributors say and don’t take time to actually read the labels and understand nutritional facts. Pollan, throughout the whole article, points out that almost everything we eat is nutrient enhanced food. He said that he believes that the food people are eating now days are worse for you than past generations.
T., Kraak, V. I., 2005, p.153). The book will be used in the sections where food industry and advertising could change their marketing toward healthy choices to help reducing and preventing
For decades, the fast food industry has become victim to rumors and false claims. McDonald’s is no stranger to misinformation regarding the ingredients of their food. These problems are especially relevant to today’s society, as many people distrust large corporations.
The pet food industry as described by IBIS World is an industry in which "Major players compete on price, quality, ingredients and nutrients" (Pet Food Production in the US: Market Research Report, 2015). In this pure competition industry, there are dominant companies such as Mars, Inc. and Nestlé Purina sharing a 24 billion dollar market (Pet Food Production in the US: Market Research Report, 2015).
I have certainly allowed myself to be influenced by various infomercials, such as the “George Foreman Grill”! I mean, why not, this is a product that is promoted by a former famous football player, and why wouldn’t I believe him? He has to be a trustworthy individual who is looking out for his health, as well as, mine, correct? After the Foreman Grill product was released, almost everyone I knew had purchased one. If offered a grilled burger, or food of choice, to be cooked on a mobile device, that was also healthy because the remineants of the fat products would drip down away from the food.
Take a second to understand why fast food firms choose to sell products that are unhealthy. Their unhealthy products are in a high demand in the food market; in fact, they are simply giving us what we demand for. Most firms have started putting food labels on their menus so there is no room for excuse when making the right food choices. Nobody is forcing us to eat a whole box of Krispy crème donuts or a super-size meal at McDonalds. I believe that we are always looking for shortcuts in life and now we can anticipate there is a shortcut in what we put into our bodies. So we are consistently after things that are cheap, fast and affordable. Who better to attend to our needs than the fast food industry?
Knowledge is power, the more the consumer knows about the food they are eating the healthier choices they’ll make. For instance, in McDonald’s Grilled Honey Mustard Snack Wrap and a small French fry, from McDonald’s is around $6.00 and contains 420 calories 24g of fat (6.0g saturated).If you were to compare that to a Big Mac meals that comes with medium size fries and coke soda would be about 980 calories the Snack Wrap would be a healthier alternative and it would be about the same price $6.00. When fast food chains put labels on their food like McDonald’s consumers can’t
Some people do not know all that much about exercise and dieting. They do not know healthy ways to eat, and they don’t realize that one can’t get the “Perfect Body” in just a few days. These people are possibly victims of Fitness Myths. “In 2002, the Federal Trade Commission released a report that shared a review of 300 weight-loss ads promoting 218 different products. They found the rampant use of false or misleading claims” (FTC, 2003) Misleading fitness products can be particularly damaging. If one is mislead into purchasing a product and the product doesn’t work as it was advertised, not only have you wasted your money, but also the product may have physically hurt your body. FTC chairman Timothy Muris talks about the advertising and promotion tactics of the fitness industry “ads that make claims and promises that are clearly implausible and patently false run in all forms of media, with the notable exception of network TV” (FTC, 2003). Misleading advertisements are common among all forms of media. Although TV commercials may be more powerful in their persuasion, an obvious reason for this is that TV advertisements show more misleading commercials. A technique frequently used in commercials to make them seem credible is that “many deceptive ads run in highly respected publications and they are perceived to be credible”(FTC, 2003). Therefore if the TV program you are watching, while the commercial is being played, seems credible, consumers tend to believe that the products advertised during the episode are also trustworthy.
Many customers will buy more package food in the future as it is cheaper and more convenience because customers can buy it in high volume and keep it for the long time.
More and More people are becoming concerned about what they eat, especially if they consume food products that are manufactured in food industries. However, it is hard to know what exactly you are consuming if food industries provide false nutrition content and mislead consumers by placing false advertisements on the packaging. When a company produces a product that contains misleading label, consumers are not receiving complete information about the food they are eating which could lead to health issues including allergies and problems with diabetes.