But we control what they do, we have many standards and regulations keeping corporations and their advertising in check. The only thing that stopped them from marketing cigarettes as healthy and cool was the social will and legislation to control them.

I doubt people would be pulling apart hamburgers and fries orders. They'd just be ordering something off the regular menu for the kid. There is a dollar menu. You can get a hamburger, cheeseburger, double cheeseburger, chicken burger, small fries, small soda, ice cream, and a few other things (each $1) off that menu. There is no serious hardship in not having a happy meal. It is little more than cute convenient packaging. I don't think not having it would make any real difference. If they put that into law, and even the slightest difference shows up, I bet it would be a result of forcing parents to remember, before they turned in that drive-through, that the gov't thought junk food was bad enough for kids to kill that item off, which might make them reconsider.

And eat as-bad or worse junk food at home instead.

PJ

From 2003
A third of all 0-6 year-olds (36%) have a TV in their bedroom, more than one in four (27%) have a VCR or DVD, one in ten have a video game player, and 7% have a computer. Thirty percent of 0-3 year-olds have a TV in their room, and 43% of 4-6 year-olds do.

Many children are growing up in homes where the TV is an ever-present companion: two-thirds (65%) live in homes where the TV is left on at least half the time or more, even if no one is watching, and one-third (36%) live in homes where the TV is on “always” or “most of the time” (the latter group are considered “heavy” TV households.)

Approximate number of studies examining TV's effects on children: 4,000
Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 3.5
Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680
Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70
Percentage of parents who would like to limit their children's TV watching: 73
Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked to choose between watching TV and spending time with their fathers, preferred television: 54
Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours
Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1500

PJ hit the nail on the head. Further, if the TV wasn't on for kids to watch then it wouldn't matter whether kid-centric marketing continued.

I might add that a walk through the grocery freezer section might be educational. Basically, everything that McDonald's serves, and tons of stuff they don't but that is equivalent or worse, is in the frozen section, and you can just nuke it. The sales on this stuff is staggering.

I guess the reality is that the problem is so pervasive, and yet the medical system is still so badly affected by medical school and medical facilities being funded by food/chem corporations, that it seems rather unlikely that anything large scale can be done that would seriously improve the situation.

I think small-scale it could be, but of course, only with medical advice that isn't harmful which most the current schtick is. And the world isn't very small-scale anymore.

PJ

I bet the numbers are way higher now, too.

PJ

Remove the subsidies and the price of grain goes up. No way around it. Here in Iowa, what a farmer gets per bushel of corn raised is less than what it costs for him to grow it. So no subsidy, no crop, unless the price goes up. And as the price of corn goes up then the

As for grain being at the bottom of the proetein chain, it is at the top but in the form of animal protein. Nearly every animal we consume is dependent upon cheap corn for food. And raise the price of that and the cost of the end product will go up and carbs will still be cheaper. Remember less than 3% of the beef consumed in this country comes from grass fed beef.

We are all "acting like Nazis"** - thanks for proving Godwin's law within 65 posts.

Anyway, Ronald himself was invented in 1963(ish) as part of a TV advertising campaign. ( source )

he looked like this:




The first Happy Meal was sold in 1979. (more information about the happy meal here )



**speaking of which

New plan to cut childhood obesity

Fast food restaurants which give away toys with children's meals could be banned from using such marketing ploys in Liverpool.
The move, suggested by one of the city council's scrutiny committees, is part of a series of initiatives to help tackle childhood obesity in Liverpool.

Restaurants like McDonalds, which offer free toys with their children's meals, could suffer if a by-law is introduced.

A McDonald's spokeswoman said the firm followed advertising codes of practice.

She added that McDonald's strongly rejected any claims that it marketed so-called 'junk food' to children.

Liverpool City Council's Childhood Obesity Scrutiny Committee is behind the idea to implement a city-wide ban on fast food outlets offering free toys with children's meals.

'Stringent principles'

The idea, which is still in its very early stages, was inspired by a similar scheme in Germany where the promotion of fast food outlets using free toys was banned.

A spokesman for Liverpool City Council said: "We have a number of strategies running across the city to help reduce childhood obesity and are looking to see whether it is possible to prevent fast food restaurants from directly appealing to children through free toy offers."

A spokeswoman for McDonald's said: "McDonald's is not able to respond directly to the proposals discussed by Liverpool City Council's Childhood Obesity Scrutiny Group, as there is little detail to the proposal at present.

"McDonald's is a responsible advertiser. We adhere to all current Codes of Practice and have our own equally stringent principles for marketing, which in many cases exceed current regulations and guidelines."

She added that the average Happy Meal was 40% lower in salt, 28% lower in sugar and 21% lower in saturated fat than it was five years ago.

She said the firm had put animated characters such as Shrek, Scooby Doo and bees from Bee Movie on a variety of food and drink items including fruit bags, carrot sticks and milk.

The scrutiny committee is to meet next month where it will decide whether to make a recommendation to the council.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/...ide/7263106.stm

This story says it all...

The gist of it:



Ahhh, so easy to brainwash the young...

Ask any rancher and they will tell you that if Americans want grass fed beef than they will surely provide it - but 3 years to bring a cow to market for grass fed vs. 150 days for grain fed is going to result in a much more expensive product. And americans want only things that are cheap. I personally eat grass fed beef and pay $5-6 a lb for ground beef and 8 a lb for round tip roasts. Steaks will go for 8-14 a lb. And I doubt many people are willing to pay those prices.

As for education, good luck when people who read USA Today and watch TV news consider themselves informed. Hell, look at college today, Introductory Logic is no longer a required course . And forget about science.

Are they also going to legislate away cold cereal sold as part of a nutritionally complete breakfast because it too has toys in it? Or is that OK because it's grain?

I am with you, Elleh. You can not legislate everything. You should have freedom to chose what to eat. It's not McDonald's fault people are obese. People we make our own choices. This is ridiculous...what's next? What if they decided low carb was wrong and all the wonderful LC products were banned and books pulled from shelves?

Find yourself a local farmer and order in bulk (split quarter or half) -- we do that and pay $3.85 a pound cut weight which includes everything from ground beef to filet mignon to everything in between and soup bones too! (grass-fed, 100% pastured, organic too)

Absolutely! Local is the way to go. My farmer is 45 minutes away, raises 12 heads per 12-18 mo, and charges me around .85 cents/pound before processing. I just picked up my half last Thurs and split it with my friend.

The cows don't get that big in 12- 18 mo, My cow was 1160 lbs at slaughter.

It really is not that expensive. Even after the processing fees I ended up with 30 pounds ground beef, all kinds of steaks, the fat from around the kidneys, toungue, liver, soup bones, roasts... ribs... what am I forgetting?
I paid 246.50, or 3.10/lb.

Off topic, but I have to say that it's been a great experience. The farmer is truly excited and proud of his animals. I'll never go back to feedlot.

Read again, Frankly. I did not say YOU or anyone else HERE was acting like Nazis.