In a country that highly endorses freedom it’s the ability to do what you want, and in this case consume what feels right that has led to a huge epidemic in the U.S.  TheU.S is where people are eating more animal based food and epidemic problems are arising from glutinous practices. It’s become a prevalent problem for the U.S, as an array of cooperation’s and food industries support this form of behavior. It’s a behavior that is perpetuated by media and several types of other forms of mediums, in order to portray to the public that this type of behavior is acceptable and even part of the ongoing social norm. It’s the lack of self-control that leads to heart disease, and various health problems as it must be discussed about how the media plays such a seducing role for convincing the public, that it’s socially acceptable, and healthy. This behavior is the over consumption of calories from adolescent years to adulthood that leads to obesity. 

Over eating in the U.S is nothing new and yet so many people are confused about what to eat and choosing the right food to eat. There are various perspectives to cover this rampant problem as one of them will be the use of mass media in order to influence and manipulate kids, and adults that consuming certain foods will bring “joy”, “happiness”, or “social belonging”. More specifically, public commercials and advertisements that spark interest in the subconscious mind of exposed consumers. Then it’s the corporations that fund the media for doing this, rather than keeping the public’s health in mind. The use of “cooperate money” to get the media in line as well as the use of government officials through lobbying. Then finally we will look at the epidemic from the perspective of the public eye. The enticing entertainment from television to other mediums used to scalp your mind, into the need for “plunging your hand for that last chip.”  Observing this epidemic from a wider perspective, will hopefully spark the question, “who is really looking out for your health?’

Since the start of television it has revolutionized communication and through that perpetuated the public’s mind into liking or detesting something. Through the advertisements on television the viewer is persuaded to consume products that may or may not be healthy, for the individual. As mentioned in (Clark, 1991) since the 1980’s when there began to be a more array of TV channels and networks, it fragmented the audience. This required advertisers to select a certain time of day and network to advertise on the television, a technique known as “narrowcasting”. The advertisers would select a specific time during shows to advertise food ads, in order to grab the more susceptible audience. For example, playing the Fruit Loops commercial during a kids show will grab the young audience attention with their “happy cartoon friendly” cereal. In a Journal of Public Health by Susan E Linn(Linn,2010), who is an instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Associate Director of the Media Center at Judge Baker Children's Center, she mentions advertisement programing. More specifically how “two hours of programming on the Cartoon Network, between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m.”, on a weekday evening contains twenty food commercials just for foods high in calories, fat, salt, and/or sugar.  According to the Federal Trade Commission (Check bibliography), “food makers spend some $1.6 billion annually to reach children through the traditional media as well as the Internet, in-store advertising, and sweepstakes”. This massive amount of money funds the media in order to falsely advertise messages until unproven.

 Let’s look at one of the popular franchises like Taco Bell and compare their advertisements with realty. If you examine figure A, you can see the visual difference in appearance from the advertised taco in contrast to the actual one. The advertised food always comes out visually aesthetic and appealing, while a group of actors would complement the item as “happy fun” teens or young adults. The media knows how to play with the public’s emotions, and so bringing in a celebrity in the mix will sell the image of the product as more desirable. This is one form of medium that the media uses, yet there a several other forms such as the internet, which can increase the range of audience available to them. 

Unlike the kids, the parents will not be convinced by the same commercials and especially those that prefer a more “whole grain filled cereal” like Cheerios or something more beneficial. Yet even Cheerios won’t help, if you are eating more than 1 and 1/5 cup without any proper exercise. This is one of the many “realistic” facts that commercials will leave out, like how much exercise do you need for this food to be considered healthy? Or What is the restricted intake for the consumption of the food?  In commercials for Cheerios it would depict a happy couple or individual feeling extremely satisfied after the first bite of their branded cereal (Cheerios Commercial, 2010). If you look closely at ads and particularly the fine print, it shows up in the bottom screen and would mention some facts the viewer should know before consuming the product. Meanwhile, in recent years there has been a trend in food advertising toward making unproven claims that eating certain foods can improve health, like the supplemental industry. According to the Federal Trade Commission (F.T.C) the supplement industry has reported an estimated $25 billion in sales in 2009. This is thanks to massive advertising that is aware of adults trying to fight obesity by using fat loss drinks, and wishful thinking that those drinks will benefit their health without any proper exercise. These small weaknesses and desires of the public are easy to exploit by the media for their advantage, and especially at times such as a recession. The ads for cheaper pizza, dollar menu meals, and less needed visits to the doctor will attract the public into considering how much there’re “saving short term” than relatively the “long term, which is their health.” 

As the media exploits these matters, it’s behind the scenes that major corporations fund them, in order to make their product appeal to the public. Corporations fund these media outlets in order to obtain a recognizable brand. The goal is to design a brand that can cross between cultures, and through any social boundaries leading it to be anything but desirable. Take for example a very popular brand by the name of McDonalds and Coke Cola, which are the most recognized names and words known across the globe.  According to the article “Fast Food Shake-Up” (Clark, 1991), it’s not new that McDonalds is known for greasy food with high calories but not for the specific ingredients that are used. Such as the McDonald French fries, with high-cholesterol beef fat that supports the risk of obesity. Unfortunately companies choose to keep the real ingredients from the public because of the fear from the possibility of depreciation of their stocks, and sales. McDonald is only one of the companies that keep the ingredients a secret, like Coke Cola for another example. Companies claim to do so out of protection from 3rd party producers but more often because they prefer the public to be unaware of what they are consuming. In fact, a book name Food Politics (Nestle, 2002 ) describes how it’s in the interest of food companies to have people believe that there is no such thing as “good” food except, when it is theirs. The Corporations would mention to their consumers that their food can be incorporated into healthful diets but they would never give any particular restrictions on the intake. 

As these companies try to satisfy stock-holders by encouraging more people to eat more, they “influence the public” through the means of spending abundant amount of money in advertising, and by lobbying government officials. Some examples of how much Food Companies like General Mills will advertise is $597.9 million, PepsiCo will advertise $1.2 billion, and Nestle will advertise $534.4 million (Nestle, 2002 .P12.). That may sound like a lot of money used for advertisement but it’s less than half of how much they return in sales. As General Milles made $6.7 billion in sales, PepsiCo made $18.7 billion, and Nestle making $49.4 billion in sales. As these companies profit more it allows them to expand, and increase advertising in order promote their products on how healthy they possibly are.  Mentioned in the book, one major lobbyist player would be the meat industry that got the chief of the USDA’s Food Marketing and Inspection Division, JoAnn Smith to side with them. She opposed an American Heart Association proposal to put a seal of approval on specific meat products that were actually low in fat. This action benefited the producers and Food Companies than the consumers by making it harder for the public to know exactly what they are getting, when they are purchasing meat. This is off course one other perspective, there is lastly the public’s perspective that’s chooses to blame advertisements for the poor choose of food.

From the public’s eye, there are various options of food from Applebee’s, to McDonalds, Wendy’s, Burger King, IHOP, Chinese Takeout, Five-Guys, White Castle, and much more…   With a click of a button, advertisements are on to depict exuberant, enticing, and mouthwatering food. Meanwhile, a walk near Times Square is filled with a heavy populated fast-food bonanza, just populated with compelling options to eat from. From the article (Mantel, 2010), it describes a girl name Annie, and her life struggle with obesity as she eats because it helps her calm down due to her high anxious personality. As an adult it was hard for her to lose weight as she even needed a therapist in order to “develop a new groove in her brain” about eating healthy. In realty Annie is not the only one obese since “Nationwide, 72.5 million adults are obese, or 27% of the adult population”. Meanwhile, food intake is only half the problem as one in four admits being completely “sedentary” leading to a lazy lifestyle without any physical activity, or motivation to walk the few distances to work, school, park etc…As the adults becomes “rounder” it comes off as an example to smaller kids that being obese is acceptable. Yet many are not aware of the immense factors that lead the “U.S as the Fattest Nation on Earth” (Bettelheim, 1999). Since many of the side effects from Obesity lead to prolonged complications for obese Americans, such as high blood pressure, strokes, infertility, and heart failure which conspire to the 300,000 deaths annually due to diabetes. This is the type of information that the public must keep in mind when taking obesity lightly and requires a reason to raise concern because food companies unfortunately will never tell you these facts about their products.    

In Sum, personal responsibility seems to grow more as a priority once someone is educated of the cons for their poor choices. As the example given, Annie realized her poor eating habits and found later in life that the only way she can become healthy, is if she listens to the healthy needs of her body rather than the commercials around her. It may seem like it’s impossible to prevent people from succumbing to fast food commercials as businesses flounder millions of dollars in order to persuade you but it’s only a desire these companies try to exploit. If you were to educate the public and help “develop a new healthy groove” earlier for kids, it will enable them to make better choices. It may seem hopeful and surreal but when you look at the outcome from fighting with the tobacco industry, the more awareness of smoking has prevented many deaths and casualties. It is a possibility from fighting the food industry by educating the public and showing the outcome from obesity, rather than letting the media say otherwise. 

Bibliography

Bettelheim, A. (1999, January 15). Obesity and health. CQ Researcher, 9, 25-48. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/

Clark, C. S. (1991, September 13). Advertising under attack. CQ Researcher, 1, 657-680. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/

Clark, C. S. (1991, November 8). Fast-food shake-up. CQ Researcher, 1, 825-848. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/

"Health and Fitness Claims." Federal Trade Commission. N.p., n.d. Web. Retrieved from http://www.ftc.gov/opa/reporter/advertising/healthclaims.shtml

Linn, Susan E. "Special Section: Legal Approaches To The Obesity Epidemic." Journal of Public Health Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, 10 Dec. 2010. Web. 19 Dec. 2012

Mantel, B. (2010, October 1). Preventing obesity. CQ Researcher, 20, 797-820. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/.Nph

Nadia Quinn.”Cheerios Commercial” 21 July, 2011. YouTube. 14 Dec. 2012.Nph 

Nestle, Marion. Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health.Berkeley: University of California, 2002. Print. Pg 12