We're not a fan of advertisers or fast food chains (or fat kids, for that matter), but the campaign to blame obese children on fast food advertising is laughable, at best. It's good to see an ad wonk slash back. Link. Excerpt:
What is even more frustrating is that there is an ever-growing body of evidence that demonstrates that advertising is not a major factor in the obesity challenge that we increasingly face around the world. In Sweden and Quebec, for example, they banned all food advertising, yet their obesity rates are not lower than many societies that have no such restrictions and substantial rates of food advertising. Also, in the United States where food and restaurant advertising is relatively uniform throughout the nation, there are wide variations in obesity rates from locality to locality, even in closely contiguous areas. This type of substantial variation would not be expected if advertising were a major engine generating this problem.
Let's try this: Pass a law that says fat kids can't eat at McDonald's and other fast food chains. Such a law would discourage McDonald's from spending money on the advertisements that appeal to fat kids, and it would act as an incentive for fat kids to lose weight. We could also use the fine money from violations to fund FATE (Fat and Tonnage Elimination) programs.
Just trying to help.
