A few days ago I was standing in line at the post office, just behind a young mother and her daughter. The little girl looked to be about 2 years old – she was still speaking that language that only a mom can understand. She was a chubby little blonde child, wearing a tee shirt that promoted Coca Cola. As I watched her, she was happily smearing a chocolate bar all over her face.
It was 9 o’clock in the morning, by the way. So, I’m not sure whether this little girl was eating her breakfast or a mid-morning snack. As she alternately licked her candy bar and babbled at her mother, I realized that this was a child who already knows how to plan ahead to her next meal; the one word coming out of her chocolate-coated mouth that I could understand clearly was ‘McDonald’s.’
The food industry spends billions of dollars each year on child seduction, with carefully-conceived advertising directed specifically at children.