Your Trusted Friends Analysis

Have you ever been watching television and right in the middle of your ground been flooded with an endless amount of commercials? If you answered yes, Im willing to bet that one of those advertisements were for one of the mevery fast feed companies in the United States. In our country, fast food corporations have a dominating grasp on the consumer and the market as to which they ar tackling. Some are calling it a pandemic, the next tobacco, and even a deadly drug that is being given to us willingly without any restrictions.Society has come to see this so called viable source of food as a quick, accessible way of getting the nutrition engageed during our everyday lives. The only reason as to which we have been able to convince our minds that what is being offered is ok is due to the utmost(prenominal) advertising campaigns, which these multi-million dollar fast food companies run. With ads directed at adults showing how a quick burger can be convenient on the go to a full blow n merchandising campaign directed at kids from ages three to thirteen, fast food companies have been able to brainwash most of America without any real restrictions.To ensure the health and well being of our countries youth, fast food companies must take more responsibility and be required to have restrictions on their marketing campaigns. Toys, Play places, clowns and kids club are only a few of the many marketing ploys which giant fast food companies have enacted to grab the youth demographic and capitalize on it. What kid is going to deny a fun finger food like french-fries, a cheeseburger, and on top of all that a toy Its like the big brother stealing candy from his younger sibling.In America, we have impelled that the age of 18 is when one is considered an adult and liable for his own actions. Yet we allow major companies, which are detrimental to our overall health, to spend billions of dollars on marketing tactics that our directed solely at our countries youth. How can we e xpect these young children to aim decision about poor food choices and living a salubrious lifestyle when there is a toy involved? Schlosser touches on the growing problems with marketing that is aimed directly at the youth.He admits that studies dont by the FTC show that young children cannot tell the difference between advertisements and actual television shows (192). This gives these companies a huge advantage over their target market. The childs brain is to a lower place constant development and when they are exposed to so many advertisements daily for these fun, exciting foods that come with toys and feelings of fun, they are bound to give in do to their transparent mental capacity.In Eric Schlossers article Your Trusted Friends he states, The typical American child now spends about twenty-one hours a week watching television- round one and a half months of TV a year (193). This being said, children are seeing hundreds of these brainwashing commercials a week. Fast food co rporations are attractive much stealing from the helpless with out any repercussions. Without any restrictions theses billion dollar empires are going to continue to target the heart of America, which will inevitably leading to a completely unhealthy nation who is blinded by the advertisements.It is time someone steps in and makes a change to benefit those who are suffering the most from this outrageous marketing scheme, our nations youth. That someone I speak of is the government. We need stricter policies on advertisements and target audiences. Its one thing for an adult male to make a decision to eat the unhealthy food offered by these companies. Being an adult he should be able to understand the consequences of eating fast food. Its the eight-year-old child who does not.If fast food companies are going to base their marketing campaigns around children they should be inclined to help support positive programs for theses children such as schooldayss physical education, summer p rograms and other activities that will teach kids to become active. The government needs to formulate a plan that would implement strict tax laws on marketing campaigns directed at younger audiences we could use these tax dollars for these types of programs that would counter the effects these companies products are having on the kid.I doubt parents would feel as evil giving McDonalds their money for non-nutritious food if they new a few pennies out of the cost of a cheeseburger would be going to her childs elementary school P. E. fund. Kids will always love toys, fun foods and a happy time and these companies know that. There is no stopping the marketing that will be pokinged at these kids. But what we can do is bind the companies responsible and demand that they give back.Our country over the past decade has been through everything from wars to recessions and the last thing we need is to only worsenedn the poor health of our country due to fast food. Our most impressionable cit izens, our youth, are being flooded every day by the intense marketing schemes from fast food companies daily. These empires that have been built on our bad eating habits and poor decisions are only going to get worse and effect our children as well grandchildren if we dont start finding solutions to counteract what these companies our doing to us.And I say counteract because we cannot bring these companies down. What we can do is hold them accountable and demand that they give a fraction of what they put into these giant marketing campaigns back to our nations children and the programs that are needed to keep them healthy. If we are going to make certain that our country lasts we must make fast food companies more responsible for the elaborate schemes they direct at our children. With some push and demanding of change from our government concerning this issue we can ensure the future health of our country.