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”. According to
Yet I do agree with him that the companies marketing strategies should change. The junk food industry is targeting certain people to buy their products. For example, Moss spoke to Bob Drane inventor of the Lunchables on how they started adding sugar to the packaging by including Kool-Aid, cookies and other extras when customers started to get bored with the plain packages. Moreover, they started targeting younger kids. When the company shift focus to the kids the ads started showing up in the Sunday morning cartoons which announced: “All day, you gotta do what they say, but lunchtime is all yours.” ()In their ads they generate a feeling of empowerment to kids who now want to eat Lunchables as an act of independence. They don’t make it about what is inside, but they form it into a psychological aspect. Another example would be, when Coca-Cola started marketing to places that are poverty-stricken in Brazil by making the bottles smaller and more affordable so they would buy them. However, Coca-Cola isn’t the only one targeting Brazil, Nestle also started sending a massive amount of women to roam the poor neighborhoods to sell American- style processed foods door-to-door. When Dunn saw this he felt remorse and tried to push the company to a more positive road by stopping the marketing of Coke to schools, but shortly after he was fired due to the backlash the company received. The companies should market their products to groups that are less
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
Food companies do whatever they can in order to promote their product even though they are full of salts, sugar, and fats according to the Monell Science Center. These industries engineer their food products so as to target your taste buds and cause you to crave for more. The end goal of businesses is to make as much money as possible while giving what the customers really wants---junk food. Moss continued by explaining an experiment between two groups of children raised on grocery foods and on home cooking. The results showed that kids who grew up with grocery foods craved foods that were salty or sugary compared to the other group who did not have this
He begins his argument by commenting about kids suing McDonald’s for “making them fat” (Zinczenko 462). Zinczenko ponders the absurdity of this claim considering how food choices are based on personal responsibility. However, he then considers the overwhelming availability ratio of fast food to fresh food while sympathizing he was once obese himself (Zinczenko 462). Zinczenko uses the primary argument that fast food companies are deceiving consumers with misleading advertisement, hidden nutrition facts, and calorie risks. He believes companies are encouraging the public to eat their unhealthy foods by omitting alarming information and levying “good” deals. In consequence, fast food companies are increasing the chances of obesity and diabetes in consumers by stimulating poor eating
The essay Junking Junk Food written by Judith Warner, brings to the audiences attention the wicked problem of how there has been a decline in Americans health. Warner’s information speaks loudly about being forced into a healthy lifestyle by the Obama administration. The Obama administration tried to enforce a healthy lifestyle among the citizens by focusing on the youth and taking away sugar options for them. Warner, puts her voice into this by mentioning the system during the world war when the soldiers had to eat overseas so there was less food consumption in America, which helped stop over consumption of food. Back then food was also much healthier thought, with less hormones, chemicals and less options of fast food. Again making it easier
In Michael Moss’ “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food” he argues that companies have a huge influence on what consumers purchase and have been successfully able to get people addicted to junk foods because one’s willpower does not overpower their lack of adequate information and time, vulnerability to manipulative marketing and formulation of products, and their socioeconomic status.
” As a culture, we’ve become upset by tobacco companies advertising to children, but we sit idly by while the food companies do the very same thing.”- Kelly Brownell, time magazine article on food addiction. It’s seen here that people like Eric Schlosser and Kelly Brownell are talking about food as similar to tobacco, they do this to show the addictive properties food can have because of fast food companies wanting their customers to be addicted to their product like drugs. And thus ends the flow of new information, to which whoever this may concern has grown accustomed to by now and will be quickly swooped away from them… that’s a little long just to transfer
When a marketing team is put onto a job it is their duty to use every tool they have to market the product as effectively as they can. When they succeed it is a job well done, they do not speculate if they deceived the buyer. Today we have regulations and laws that require advertising to be truthful and information on the product readily available. This way the consumer has all the information they need to make an educated purchase. Michael Moss’s argument suggests that the average consumer isn’t aware about the effects of heavy junk food consumption. For example, in the article it says, “…he was engaged in conversation with a group of food-science experts who were painting an increasingly grim picture of the public’s ability to cope with the industry’s formulations—form the body’s fragile controls on overeating to the hidden power of some processed foods to make people hungrier still” (260). This quote generalizes the public and suggests that everyone has fallen under the spell of the food companies. This quote is trying to paint a picture of all Americans sharing the same pains about overeating junk food. To say that “… an increasingly grim picture of the public’s ability to cope with the industry’s speculation” is a little farfetched to say the least. Junk food is only a problem when it is overeaten and that requires multiple purchases. That means that there has to be multiple instances of consumer negligence for a problem to begin. Then it
Focusing on the well being of the customers should be the main focus of any major company, especially fast food companies. By reducing the amount of unhealthy choices for children and replacing them with nutritional foods, the nation’s youth will benefit.
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?
If one tries to manipulate kids, or even adults, into not eating junk food, when the opportunity does arise they will most likely chose the unhealthy version. It should be up to the parents on what their kids eat, and they should most definitely make them eat healthy, and foster healthy eating habits. Whenever those kids do grow up, it should then be their responsibility to eat healthy, and hopefully they will continue on eating healthy. That does not mean that they will though, but in the end they should learn their own way, and on their own time. This is American, it is a FREE country, so we should decide when and what we want to eat. It should also be our responsibly to take care of ourselves, and our bodies, and more important, our health. We cherish it more if we have to spend our own money on medical bills and medication. People need to realize if they want to eat out more than they eat in, they should exercise more regularly. All in all, consumers should have the right to eat whatever they want, whenever they want, because they should have to pay for their own medical supplies to keep themselves alive. If they want to slowly kill themselves by eating too much McDonalds, let them. If they have to money to keep buying unhealthy food, then they should have the money for all their medical
So how can the companies let this happen? We the people are doing it to our selfs not the fast food. George William Domhoff a research professor in psychology and sociology says that as we the consumer have the power over the company “food system” with what we buy. So all and all, we the consumer cant blame the fast food restaurant for our health problems, we decided to go and eat the unhealthy food. But if thats all you can afford you have no choice, the only choice you do have is what you want from the menu.
Through various observations and assumptions, there have been conversations on whether or not overconsumption of food is an addiction. However, many have come to the conclusion that food is an addiction if it is overconsume excessively than it is necessary for an individual’s diet. Nevertheless, food addiction can create health issues that can affect an individual’s body. Even though, many individual may have such knowledge of overconsumption of food; however, many may choose to ignore the consequences that comes with food addiction. Becoming a food addict is harmful and dangerous to an individual’s health.
Since industrialization in early America, the food industry has been growing, and with the development of prepackaged foods and fast-food chains, having snacks at your fingertips is a luxury that seems convenient and beneficial… until one considers the effects of junk food on the body and brain. Generally, junk food is characterized as food with high fat and sugar content and minimal nutritional value (Karimi-Shahanjarini et al., 2012). In modern day America, it is common to arrive home from a long day at school or work and grab a conveniently prepackaged snack to quiet your munchies and calm your nerves. Although this seems like a harmless act, eating these snack foods can have negative effects on the body and brain.
It became so clear that junk foods lead to a punch of catastrophic diseases like obesity, type two diabetes, vascular diseases and cardiac disorders. Those kinds of diseases cost more than $150 billion annually, just to diagnose, treat people who suffer from them. That disease is chronic and leads to many health-related issues, for example, obesity considers a risk factor for type two diabetes, and high blood pressure, joint disorders and many others (The Denver Post 2012). The key of preventing many chronic problems is nutrition. Low income plays an important role of limiting most people to buy and eat a healthy diet and in the other hand, it is easy for people budgets to purchase junk foods. So controlling the prices of healthy foods to be suitable for all people make good nutrition available for everyone. Adequate diets mean decreasing the epidemic of those serious diseases, and stopping the spread and break the bad sequences that may happen. Long-term exposure to junk foods that are full with chemicals like additives, preservatives have led to chronic illnesses difficult to treat. Also, the chemical added to junk foods are tasted unique and made millions of people becoming addicted to them and are available everywhere for example in restaurants, cafes, lunchrooms (The Denver Post
...ng sugar and fats. The junk food companies know this, but they don’t care, because it makes them rich. In summary, this is why by law, all fast-food companies should have forced limitations on distribution which has lead to the rise of obesity in America.