Business Studies
Fallon Santowski
Assumption Convent School
News Article Analysis on the Fast Food Industry: The controversy of toys in the fast food industry.
Summary of the topic:
Toys are a big controversy towards the fast food industry. Fast food franchises such as McDonald’s give away free toys with their Happy Meals. The toys are generally made as characters out of new famous children movies or children TV shows, and often come in sets, where a customer will have to keep going to McDonald’s to get all the characters in that set. Therefore children and their parents will keep going back, just to get the toys, without realizing that the food is not nutritional and does not meet the needs of their children’s daily requirements
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In each of the articles, toys were frowned upon as being served for free with children’s meals that had little to no nutritional value. There was also emphasis on the fact that, the parents were very careless and irresponsible in the health and well-being of their children. The parents have neglected the safety of their children, by allowing them to eat foods that are high in fat, high in carbohydrates and contain a huge sugar and salt content. I have also discovered that the fast food restaurants are also not being ethical, especially in their advertisements. McDonalds and Burger King show most of their advertisements on children’s channel such as Cartoon Network. With these adverts they put emphasis on the packing of the Happy Meals and what toy you will get with this meal. These bright, vibrant and exciting colours on the packaging and the toys, invites the children to want the Happy Meal even more. The children also get an emotional desire to have this particular …show more content…
The issue of children being more attracted to the shape, colour and features of a toy as opposed to what the meal beside it looks like, is expressed in this article. The children are far more interested in the paraphernalia that they are given with their meal, that what they are with the actual meal they are being served. Studies have shown, that children are to a large extent influenced by what they see and hear in the popular culture that what they are told at home, this indicates that they may suffer from peer pressure and do not have much of a home life if they are always involved in what is going on outside of their homes. Most of the advertisements that McDonalds and Burger King send out to be aired, are mainly targeted at children, they do this by making the packaging of the meals look inviting as well as the portion size is directed to them. Dr. James Sargent who is a paediatrics professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, says that these techniques used by McDonalds and other fast food brands are misleading. This technique also means that children make lifelong emotional connections to the fast food brands and will always remember them and long do what they can to always have something from the fast food restaurants. Children under a certain age, mainly the age that the advertisements are targeted at, are unable to purchase these poor nutritional
There should be limit’s that stop’s food companies from promoting themselves as appealing when in reality their food products are a hazard to our bodies. As Barboza states in his article “There is a need to set specific standards on what is marketed to children…” we are in agreement that, what ever kids see on T.V. or being marketed, they want it! As a child I remember that I wanted many things I saw on T.V. like Carl's Jr, Lucky Charms, Mcdonald's, Gushers, ect… When eating these food products, as you get older it affects your health. A good
McDonald 's has associated its self with anything that could attract kids into insisting on getting them. A Happy meal has a toy usually associated with the newest movie or television show that kids are unquestionably excited about. Such as the commercial where Spider-man leaps out of the television into the living room of a random kid saying he cannot “hang around”, as a voice-over comes in and states it’s “because the action is at McDonald 's” then goes on to state what neat items they could receive in each happy meal. All while the kid is filmed having an enjoyable time, the lighting brightens the kids face and smile, and the music creates a sensation that one must go to McDonald
Obesity in the United States, which the media has labeled a national crisis, has also been connected to poverty rates. Big fast food industry’s target poor communities, and spend millions of dollars each year to create advertising that appeals to these specific areas. These industry’s also target naïve children when advertising because they know that eating habits developed in childhood are usually carried into adulthood. Children who are exposed to television advertisements for unhealthy food and who are not educated well enough on good nutrition will grow up and feed their families the same unhealthy foods they ate as kids. A big way fast food giants are able to make certain young people have access to unhealthy food is by strategically placing franchises in close proximity to schools. They will often place three times as many outlets within walking distance of schools than in areas where there are no schools nearby. The way fast food advertising is targeted towards children is very alarming considering how important good nutrition is for young people and how a child’s eating habits can affect their growth and
Crouse, Janice Shaw. "The Fast-Food Industry Intentionally Markets Unhealthy Food to Children." Fast Food. Ed. Tracy Brown Collins. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2009. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 14 Apr. 2011.
Any agency that uses children for marketing schemes spend hundreds of billions dollars each year world wide persuading and manipulating consumer’s lifestyles that lead to overindulgence and squandering. Three articles uncover a social problem that advertising companies need to report about. In his research piece “Kid Kustomers” Eric Schlosser considers the reasons for the number of parents that allow their children to consume such harmful foods such as ‘McDonalds’. McDonalds is food that is meant to be fast and not meant to be a regular diet. Advertising exploits children’s needs for the wealth of their enterprise, creating false solutions, covering facts about their food and deceiving children’s insecurities. It contains dissatisfaction that leads to over consumption. Children are particularly vulnerable to this sort of manipulation, American Psychological Association article, “Youth Oriented Advertising” reveals the facts upon the statics on consumers in the food industries. The relationship that encourages young children to adapt towards food marketing schemes, make them more vulnerable to other schemes, such as, advertising towards clothing, toys and cars. Article writer of “The relationship between cartoon trade character recognition and attitude toward product category in young children”, Richard Mizerski, discusses a sample that was given to children ages three to six years old, about how advertising incurs young children that are attracted too certain objects or products on the market.
Fast food restaurants such as Burger King and McDonald’s, create advertisements where it urges people to consume their product. For example Mcdonald’s created a product where you can get two items such as a mcdouble and a medium fries for three dollars. According to “The battle against fast food begins at home”, by Daniel Weintraub, it shows how companies are intriguing their customers. “ The center blames the problem on the increasing consumption of fast food and soft drinks, larger portion sizes in restaurants and the amount of available on school campuses”(1).For the most part, the Center for Public Health believes that fast food companies are the problem for health
While the movies characters are still talking, they interject a family going into the McDonald’s. They start eating and bring out the toys within the Happy Meal to play with, all the while being told by the movie characters that they have nothing to play with when away from home. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, this commercial addresses the physiological needs of food and water, the safety needs making the kids feel safe and sheltered by their parents, as well as their social needs because getting the toys in the Happy Meal will make the kids feel accepted and loved (Tanner, Jr & Raymond, 2012, pg
In general, children have always been understood to be the key to influencing the future. In spite of the fact that this is usually a positive thing, the food industry has taken this into dangerously, selfish territories; undoubtedly, this explains the continued upward trend in childhood obesity. In her own words, Dr. Margo Wootan, an expert in sociology, critiques how “by the time kids are able to speak, most of them can already say McDonald’s,” (Spurlock). In the course of an experiment by Spurlock, he interviewed children to find out if this was true. In the interview, children were presented with pictures of famous people and then fictional fast food spokespeople. Out of all the options, many children were quick to recognize almost all the fast food spokespeople. In addition, at the time that
Commercials make the viewer think about the product being advertised. Because of the amount of television children watch throughout the week, it allows the children to be exposed to the information over and over again. Per year, children are known to view thousands of fast food commercials. On a daily basis, a teen will usually view five advertisements and a child aged six to eleven will see around four advertisements (Burger Battles 4). Businesses use this strategy to “speak directly to children” (Ruskin 3). Although the big businesses in the fast ...
...product toward children promising those children toys and gifts and you can even find inside some of those fast food restaurants games that attract children. Because of what they are doing one in six children are obese, the parents must be blamed but still the fast food industries are the ones who are selling that product and marketing it toward those children.
Finally, Mattel should collaborate with quick service restaurants such as McDonalds and Burger King to include a Mattel toy, such as Hot Wheels, in kids’ meals. In 2006, the food industry spent over $360 million on toys and 36% of all fast food meals were served to kids, making toys the most popular form of marketing to children (Gagnon & Freudenberg, 2012). This is a unique opportunity for Mattel to increase their competitive advantage through a different marketing
When researching McDonald’s through online sources, it is clear that nutrition is a major concern of the public visiting the fast-food chain. Secondary research conducted shows that there are several case studies and other secondary source searches around the same topic. McDonald’s has often been the center of nutritional attention within the fast-food industry. Secondary research shows that the restaurant has recently made changes to the American Happy Meal to reduce the amount of French fries offered and replace the portion with fruit (Strom, 2011). In a study conducted by McDonald’s a secondary source reports the meal cuts calories by 20% for the children’s meal (Strom, 2011). This is a critical move by the organization on children’s obesity is currently a hot topic within food chains and attention is driven by the Obama administration. Secondary research also shows that although the public has major health concerns with the food chain, profits are increasing during a high point of an economic recession (Dahan & Gittens, 2008). Acco...
As a little girl I loved watching television shows on Saturday mornings. I’d get upset when a show would proceed to commercial. That is until I watched the shiny new toy being played with by the girl my age and of course the cool new one that came into the happy meal, then I’d forget. After seeing the appealing commercial I’d run to my mom and try to slickly mention it. “You know McDonalds has a new Monster’s Inc. toy in their happy meal. Isn’t that great? “Now I realize that back then I was targeted by big companies to beg my parents for things that I didn’t need or that wasn’t good for me in order to make money. Advertising today is affecting the health of today’s children because they eat the unhealthy foods advertised to them on: television, the internet, and even at school. Therefore, an impassioned discussion of possible solutions has been brewing.
Through Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation he examines the effects that fast food has impacted the world and the way it is affecting the people that are consuming it. As the fast food industry continues to grow throughout not only the United States but the whole world, marketing companies are always looking for ways to broaden the group of people that are interested in buying their product over another company’s. As a marketer for a fast food company it is essential to have a group of people that you can rely on to always buy the company’s product, to many fast food companies they found this group of people to be adolescents and children. Marketing groups specifically market their products to entice this group of people to lure them in. Food is an object that is needed for the survival of a human, but the type of food that humans chose to eat is also not always the best. Because fast food is so cheap and easily accessible just about everywhere you turn your head, many people resort to eating it even though it is very unhealthy. With these factors present, many adults have exposed their children to fast food at a young age, these parents do not always think about the long term effects of feeding their children fast food because they are so caught up in the moment of feeding their kids right then and there; they do not think about the health risks that can occur later as a result from eating fast food now.
Worcester Polytechnic Institution. "Fast Food Marketing to Children." Public Health Communication. (2007). http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-082107-231740/unrestricted/Appendix_1.pdf (accessed February 17, 2014).