The fast food industry uses many tactics to lure children into wanting their product. Most of the time, companies will use advertisements with cartoons and bright colors to attract children’s attention, even just for a 30 second commercial, just enough time to introduce the cartoon and have it tell them how much they want this particular food. Sometimes companies will use an event or topic that is currently “cool” to children and link their product with that event or topic. Other times companies will use an ad with an average child in an everyday situation, so children can relate to the character, which shows the child how extraordinary their lives will become if they get this product. Companies may also hire celebrity spokespeople from popular children’s television shows. Schlosser states that some companies even have “cradle-to-grave” plans of advertisement. This means that companies will gear their ads towards a specific age group for their entire lifetime in hopes that they will keep brand loyalty their entire lives. McDonald’s and other companies that we remember as a child, seems to sell something other than their product, products that are intangible. They sell imagination for toddlers, with toys and food that is individually wrapped. They sell rewards for the child or adolescent who received an A on their report card. They sell happy childhood memories for adults who remember the times their parents took them to McDonald’s. It is these strong emotional ties that keep people coming back to their product. However, there is much skepticism about the ethics to luring children at such young ages. People may say that companies are “corrupting children’s minds,” especially companies that do not sell products that children will directly use like cars and heating oil. Some researchers say it is because parents feel guilty that they are not spending much time with their children, so to make up, they buy them whatever they want.
In chapter 3, the book gives many reasons on how fast food industries, and other companies attracted children to their business. Companies used commercials that specifically target children because a child’s attention is the easiest to grab hold of. The companies would create these commercials and create child-friendly characters to go along with them. One of the first characters that McDonalds introduced was Speedee. Speedee was a winking chef with a hamburger for a head. Farther down the line the McDonalds mascot changed to Ronald McDonald. He was deemed to overweight at first. He appealed to the children because he was dressed like a clown. Other ways of bringing children to their business was to actually put a child or a parent into the actual commercial. This provoked the advertisement business to show that real people use these products not just cartoons. Walt Disney, the founder of Disney, had his work cut out for him. He had a character called Mickey Mouse who easily drew children to his company. Another huge aspect of his advertising came from his large amusement park called Disneyland. He also came up with the brilliant idea of Tomorrowland. Tomorrowland showed the aspects of space travel all the way to household products of the future. The Magic Kingdom was created to show how Walt Disney was going to have an affect on the Hollywood industry. This appealed to children because children watch a lot of television. The Disney channel also brought in a lot of children spectators because of their cartoons. On a side note, Nickelodeon also created their station to lure in children to their company. To the actual business, luring children to their company is a good thing obviously because it brings better business. Children are easy to target and if something is appealing to them then they are going to beg for it. McDonalds using toys and kid’s meals to lure children to their company was the perfect way to get child business. Some other people may think that it is not ethical at all to mainly target children to a company just for better business. They think that it is unethical to use a child just so the company can make a better profit.
The many fast food industries market and advertise to their largest crowd and beloved customers, children. The fast food chain owners feel that they must make their food appealing to the younger crowd in order for them to survive and thrive in the fast food business. The owner of McDonalds, Ray Kroc realized that he needed to change the marketing strategy for McDonalds; Ray Kroc aimed for the children instead of families. Ray Kroc explains that if a child who loves McDonald’s commercials brings their grandparents to a McDonalds that gives McDonalds two more customers. Many of the fast food chains use the imagination of children and produce things that are pleasing to them like putting toys in happy meals, decorating the place with vibrant colors, and a jovial mascot. Fast food chains spend majority of their profit on marketing than anything; Schlosser points out that McDonalds spends more money on advertising than any other brand in all industries combined, helping it replace Coca-Cola as the world's most famous brand. Fast food chains advertisements have one goal and that is to capture the attention of children and persuade them into buying their products.
The fast food chains have certain principles when it comes to targeting children for advertising. Fast food chains major focus is placed on children with working parents who will feel guilty for not spending time with their children forcing them to buy their children things. Fast food chains are making children into “surrogate salesmen” because they are able to persuade their parents to buy anything they wanted. The goal of children advertising is to get kids to nag their parents until they get what they want. The fast food industry using children as their salesmen is one reason why the target children. According to James U. McNeal, a professor of marketing, explains the many ways children get their parent to purchase what the child desires. There are 7 major categories: pleading nags, persistent nags, forceful nags, demonstrative nags, sugar-coated nags, threatening nags, and pity nags. These are the ways that a child can and will get their parents to buy that item they really want. The other principle that fast food industry must follow when targeting children is finding out what kids like to eat. In order to fulfill this task advertisers observe and question children to find out what they like overall. They also study the artwork and activities children like to do. Fast food chains use TV stations such as nickelodeon and cartoon network to put out advertisements. These fast food chains have mastered the art of advertising and marketing to children which is why fast food restaurants are powerful and will remain powerful for many years.
Fast food industry uses several appeals to target children. Fast food industries make their commercials similar to children shows, use bright colors, toys, and other things that attract children. These companies know that once they have hooked a child to their product they have potential lifetime customers. Children obviously don’t have money so that attracts adults. Those child customers turn into adults who buy the company’s products and a cycle has begun. Fast food companies target younger children because they know that they will continue to use their products in the future. Producing long-term customers is what fast food companies would rather do. The fast food industry preys on children because they are easy targets. In chapter 3 it was stated that most children couldn’t tell a television show from a commercial. Sooner than later children became familiar with the products they saw on television and requested them. If the advertisers could figure out what children liked then they had the ability to affect the way they behaved to get their products. When cartoon like commercials fail fast food companies somewhat bribe their target audience. In 1997 10 million happy meals were sold on average in a week, but when Beanie Babies were put inside each Happy Meal 100 million were sold in a week. Kids love toys and putting them inside their food is a huge plus. Almost every fast food establishment puts a toy in their kid’s meal to insure that the child customers were pleased, not necessarily with the food, but the reward they got from coming. After toys food companies resulted to making personal connections to their customers. Franchise like McDonald’s made personal commercials that presented them as a trusted friend to their customers a company that cared about it customers. In reality they were just willing to do anything to make a sell.
Through history the fast food industry has targeted children in several ways. They believe that once they have a child in tuned with something it would stick with them the rest of their lies ultimately keeping a life-long customer. Although the food is amazing in its own way the kids are drawn to not only their favorite meal but a new toy they seen their best friend playing with at school. Furthermore, the fast food industry has come far along in this day and age with targeting children, before they just served different types of toys varying on the sex of the child with their food. Now they incorporate big time movies and cartoon characters favored by kids. The different big time Hollywood names favored by kids throughout the world can be easily retrievable with a meal if they just get their parents to bring them. As children then grow into adults they don’t stop the temptation of going to these fast food restaurants. Yes, they have grown in to adults, toys no longer serve a purpose to them but by now they are hooked to the food and before you know it their children will be as well, just like a chain reaction. Just think if they destroyed every fast food industry, how mankind would react. Would they be able to accept it? It would not only increase the prices of the food but it would take away a person’s child hood memories. Would it ultimately cause one into depression? Just think about the effects fast food had on your child hood. Do you want this same addiction over your child’s head?
In chapter 3, Schlosser talks about how the fast food industry targets children. Children are an easy target for the fast food industry because it is easy to get them to like their products. Ray Kroc, the owner of McDonalds, wanted to improve business by targeting children. Since children are to get at, McDonalds advertised the products in many ways. One of the popular ways to advertise was through commercials. What they used in the commercials was something appealing to children like cartoons and mascots. They would try to convince the children to go eat at McDonalds and how it is a good thing. Also, if children go then they would need their parents to bring them which would be good for business too because it would be more customers. Another thing that would get kids to eat fast foods is when the fast food restaurants put little toys with meals. Sometimes these toys would come in a set so the kids would have to come back multiple times. There are also ethics of the fast food industry targeting children to buy their products. This involves the children’s parents. In order for children to get fast food, they have to try to get their parents to bring them there. In the book it talks about how there are different ways in order for parents to get their children what they want. These different ways are pleading nags, persistent nags, forceful nags, demonstrative nags, sugar-coated nags, threatening nags, and pit nags. Sometimes parents feel like in order to get their children’s love, they need to get them whatever they want. Other ways are parents being bribed or the kid has to constantly beg their parent to get them whatever they want. All these different ways has lead to the success of fast food industry.
Fast food industries market to children in many ways. In fact studies show that children are actually the key to the success of many fast food industries. Marketing techniques that appeal to children are used throughout many of the companies. Many industries appeal to children by their advertisements. Most of today’s advertisements for fast food chains are in forms of cartoons. Of course, cartoons appeal to children, it’s a part of their everyday lives. Industries also appeal to children by using bright color patterns and by simply catering to children. Fast food industries give many children a feeling of independence. McDonalds is a prime example of marketing to children. Every McDonalds has a happy meal, a meal designed especially for children, which comes with a brightly colored box with games, and a toy included with the child’s meal. Also each McDonald’s has a playground, something that will appeal to a child of any age. However companies like McDonalds strive to appeal to children so that they can reach adults. Ray Krock explains the industries tactics the best. Krock stated that a child who loves McDonald’s commercials brings their grandparents to a McDonalds that gives McDonalds two more customers. Krock makes perfect t sense when it comes to fast food industries. The industry only cares about making money. Anew customer means an extra dollar made. Fast food markets also target parents with jobs. Parents with jobs often spend majority of their time working. Therefore, they have money and they also have children. However, fast food companies see them as guilty parents who will buy their child anything just to feel better as a parent. In the end most kids love the things they see on TV and parents are happy to buy their child a meal from McDonalds, Burger King, or another fast food chain. There is one question to this day that has not yet been answered, is it ethical or unethical to market to children. Well I guess it depends who you ask. To a fast food industry it seems completely ethical. Children are easy targets and what appeals to them appeals to their parents. Children are the main factors that help many industries to stay successful. However if you ask any other normal company they might disagree. Marketing to children seems conniving, devious and completely unethical.
Chinedu Echebelem Schlosser includes multiple reasons why and how fast food companies appeal to children with their products. Most fast food companies believe that making their product attractive to children and the younger adults will guarantee them the most success and prosperity of their company. Schlosser explains how guilty parents try to win their children over by buying them material things or general things that they desire. Fast Food companies took this into consideration when deciding on their advertising campaigns and marketing. Today’s companies know that individual grow up with certain brands. As a child, if you constantly wear one brand of clothing (and this designer creates adult clothing), why wouldn’t you wear? People grow accustom to things. Fast Food companies realized that people become loyal to certain brands and it all begins in their childhood. If you eat McDonalds as a child, you become accustom to it and will continue to eat it as an adult. When you decide to have children, they will eat it also, and the cycle continues from there. Numerous companies use different technics to grab the eye of a child. One way is by their commercials. Schlosser talks about how companies will use bright colors, friendly and playful cartoon characters, and lively individuals. It is easier for companies to attract young gullible, and naïve children, than mature adults. However, these companies know with the attention of the child comes the attention of their parents. One successful way that Fast Food Companies have marketed to children is by the manufacturing of toys, and development of play areas. It gives every child and parents more of a reason to want to go to a fast food restaurant. There’s a toy in every kids meal, and a play area to keep them busy after they’ve finished their meal. In the parents’ eyes that is free entertainment for their children. And who doesn’t like anything free?
In Chapter 3, “Your Trusted Friends” the fast food industry is trying to get more customers that are children. The fast food industries use many types of advertisements to get the children to recognize their restaurant. Companies use commercials, bright colors, playgrounds, toys, mascots, and etc to get the children’s attention. Some companies even use cartoons. Schlosser states that a “market research has found that children often recognize a brand logo before they can recognize their own name”, which shows how the companies tend to have a symbol or a mascot to represent their industry so they can easily be remembered. He also states “the growth in children’s advertising has been driven by the efforts to increase not just current, but also future, consumption.” Which means that their advertisements that are specifically for the children is to hopefully make them want to purchase that product for the rest of his or her life.
McDonald’s playgrounds have seesaws, slides, and pits full plastic balls at the restaurant which is mainly for the kids. The playground draws the children to the restaurant because they were able to eat and play at the same time. McDonald’s included toys in their Happy Meals that are intended for children between the ages of three and nine, but sometimes an adult will purchase a Happy Meal just for the toy. Who wouldn’t mind getting a free toy with a purchase of a meal?
However, without the advertisements set for the children, the fast food industry will not have as many customers as they do now. Also without the children nagging their parents to take them to the fast food restaurant to get them that product is another way that could decrease sales in that company. Advertisement is the most important thing in a business and it makes that company successful among with other things.
In chapter 2, Schlosser discusses the techniques that fast food industries use when targeting “kid kustomers.” Fast food industries began to create mascots, sell merchandise, and use advertisements that were appealing to children. McDonalds created the mascot Ronald McDonald after the T.V. show Bozo’s Circus was cancelled to be a part of their ad campaign. What child could resist a happy, brightly colored clown who promoted their favorite foods? McDonalds also built small playlands and McDonaldlands all over the U.S. When small children see those playlands it is bound to get their attention. “Restaurant chains evoked a series of pleasing images in a youngster’s mind: bright colors, a playground, a toy, a clown, a drink with a straw, little pieces of food wrapped up like a present.” All of these things are appealing to children drawing them in just as marketers knew they would. Ad agencies now have children divisions who focus mainly on marketing to a younger crowd. Children’s clubs are an effective way of targeting ads and collecting demographic information. Corporations use them to solicit names, addresses, zip codes, and personal comments of young customers. “A well-designed and well-run children’s club can be extremely good for business.” Burger King’s Burger King Kids Club increased the sales of children’s meals as much as 300 percent. The use of the internet became a large marketing tool for the fast food industry. The McDonalds website encouraged kids to send Ronald an e-mail revealing their favorite food at McDonalds, their favorite book, sports team, and name. All of this could be used to gain new marketing ideas and strategies. Fast food ads began to show up in schools in their hallways and on the sides of buses. Now fast food ads are being promoted on Channel One, the commercial television network programming that is shown in classrooms almost every day. The biggest marketing tool that the fast food industry came up with was the free toys given in happy meals. Not only did it catch the eye of children but some adults as well. At one time McDonalds included Teenie Beanie Babies in their happy meals. McDonalds sold 100 million Happy Meals in a week because of this.
In chapter two of Fast Food Nation, the author discussed the technique of marketing to children. It is interesting that corporations would want to target children at such a young age, but it is very smart. From personal experience, I remember a lot of things from my childhood, such as the toys I received, the food I ate, type of clothes I wore, the TV shows I watched and much more. One of the schemes, “brand loyalty”, is the most impressive in my opinion because I was a successful target in that theory. Brand Loyalty is to have a child hooked on something at a young age with a good memory of it. Anything associated with a good memory will be revisited since a lot of people stick to things that they are happily familiar with. When I was a kid, the toys sold with kid’s meals were definitely played with. Although the cheap little toys were thrown away probably after a week because by then I got a new one from the fast food restaurant, some were still cherished. I can say I am guilty of begging my parents for toys or something at a young age that I wanted really badly because I saw it on a commercial or some other type of advertisement. I was never the child to whine about it though because I understood my boundaries with my parents. Schlosser refers to another book Kids as Customers written by James U. McNeal. McNeal talks about the different type of nags that children perform to get what they want. People have probably seen all the different type of nags whether it’s from their own child or witnessed another child do it to their parents. Some of that tactics are not respectful and devious toward parents. McNeal is not condoning bad behavior toward parents from a child to get a toy, but believes that a kid one way or the other should favor the good morals of a company. I only agree with targeting children for marketing if it is for the good of the child. It is wrong to take advantage of the power to control what a kid could like at such a young age. For example, the tobacco commercials that target children should never had been allowed. All the toxic things in tobacco should not be something appealing to kids, yet these type of companies want to trick the kids into thinking that whatever is in a cigarette is harmless and cool. At a young age, children are exposed to lies. Although it is a parent’s responsibility to monitor these types of things, the thought of wanting to target children with harmful products should not be favored.
Taylor Reuther Advertisement for fast food restaurants is a huge way to get customers to purchase their items. The question becomes whether the advertising is ethical or not. Children and families are usually the target of these ads. The number one way that McDonalds advertises to children is with the Happy Meal. The kids do not care about what kind of food is in there because all they are worried about is which toy they get. This provides a concern for healthiness because the kids do not even worry about eating a healthy meal since all they are concerned with is getting a toy with their food. The kids will maliciously harass their parents until they take them to McDonalds because they want the toy that bad. Schlosser talks about how parents take their kids places like fast food restaurants to make up time they have not been spending with the child. The parents just assume they can buy their kids happiness back with a dinky little toy from McDonalds, and sometimes it is true because that is how much the kid “needs” the toy. Another way McDonalds advertises to kids is by using their mascot, Ronald McDonald. In commercials that kids see on television, Ronald McDonald is always in happy situations promoting a thing that kids want to see like sports, skating, buying balloons, etc. Worldwide, kids know who Ronald McDonald is better than most other popular characters because they see him on television nonstop promoting McDonalds. The play sets at McDonalds are also a huge kid attraction and selling point. The kids go inside to buy their food, and while the parents wait in line the kid goes and plays on the play set. Most of the time whenever the food is actually ready the kid will refuse to come off of the play set and eat. This creates a problem for the family and might cause a restaurant-wide scene. Although McDonalds does a nice job advertising to children, it is unethical. They are promoting things that are unhealthy using toys as bait. Ronald McDonald cannot solve the problem of hunger or world piece, but he is becoming young adolescents role models. The play sets are fun and all, but kids do not listen to their parents when they say it is time to go. All of these advertisements create problems for the kids and for the parents.
Schlosser delves into the manipulative means of the fast food industry in chapter two. He reveals that the wide focus of the fast food industry is towards children. The industry is targeting the young children in order to hook them into fast food and keep them as customers for a long time. This is very depressing and conniving. Before reading this chapter, I regarded playplaces in McDonalds as a fun and safe place for kids. What used to be an innocent playground is now understood to be baits for families with young children and no time to be able to cook dinner or make lunches. In addition to that, the fast food industry reels more children into this fake, happy world by their commercials on television. Studies show that children cannot tell from regular shows and commercials. Even with this knowledge, the heartless fast food industry still preys upon young children. The commercials even teach the kids how to ask, beg, and nag for their parents to get them certain things. This greed for lifelong customers moved over to schools too. Children today are surrounded by advertisement, egging them to purchase and consume their products. These advertisements can be found in schools, shopping centers, libraries, recreational places. It is definitely unethical to target children, especially with unhealthy fast food. These industries only look to their own profit. They do not care for the well being of their consumers. They manipulate naïve and immature children; however, they continue “corrupting children’s minds”. I strongly believe that the people at the top of these food industries may work there, but will not encourage their own children to eat the food. If it were up to me, I would not allow fast food advertising in schools. I would ban fast food to young children. The early years of children are the years where they are shaped and pointed in the right path. Introducing them to fast food is pushing them down a destructive path. It seems as though the United States, the “Land of Opportunity”, is also the land of corruption. You just need to look close enough and you will find it almost everywhere.
Towards the latter part of Chapter 2, Schlosser exposes the plans of McDonald’s and other corporations in the fast food industry to exploit children. They companies set out to advertise to children in every single outlet they possibly could. They began running commercials during children’s shows and cartoons featuring children their own age. They had play areas in their restaurants, gave free toys away (with the purchase of a meal), and took on kid friendly mascots like clowns and furry animals. These exploitations ran so deep they manipulated the psychological relationship between parent and child as a whole and its individual components. With apparent parallels and connections to Disney children now saw places like McDonald’s as the next best thing. This put an unreasonably large amount of pressure on parents. Since children were constantly exposed to the “magic of McDonald’s” through relentless advertising they were just as relentless in imploring that they be brought to McDonald’s. Here the exploitation effects the whole family because now a parent will have to take their child in order to keep their children happy, in turn making them feel good about themselves, and ultimately keeping the whole family happy and in good spirits.
The cold, calculated act of putting children in their “cross-hairs” doesn’t seem to phase these corporate fast food giants in the slightest. They seem to be satisfied as long as their reputation is intact and they’re making a profit. These corporations can now advertise on television, billboards, public transportation, posters, and even in schools. Young Americans are bombarded nearly at all times when they are awake. Now that their actions are brought to light it’s apparent that it isn’t particularly ethical to market to children so aggressively because they are very impressionable and can’t really “defend” themselves when it comes to these kinds of “attacks.”
In Chapter 2, it states that about twenty-five years ago, only a handful of American companies directed their marketing at children. Examples were Disney, McDonald's, candy makers, toy makers, and manufacturers of breakfast cereal. Today children are being targeted by numerous companies. Children's advertisement started during the 1980s because many working parents felt guilty about not spending enough time with their children, so they started spending their money on them. Advertisement wasn't to get kids to whine to their parents, it was to give them a reason to ask their parents for the products. Advertisers conducts surveys to children, send cultural anthropologists into homes, stores, or fast food restaurants, and many other places where kids like to eat and observe their behavior. One good example of advertisement to kids over the past few decades was a character on the McDonald's website names Ronald McDonald. The site was expected for kids to send Ronald an e-mail telling him their favorite thing to eat on the menu item at McDonald's. Fast food advertisement is extremely important in directing kids because kids are the main customers. It is heavily marketed to children and prepared by people who are barely older than children.
The fast food industry’s marketing to children is both basic and complex because of the simple fact that most of their advertisements are focused towards the age of eight and lower, but they have to use a unique ploy to catch the children eyes. For example the McDonalds playhouse is a marketing tactic to get kids to want to come to their restaurant and play, but in the process it provides customers to them. McDonalds like other companies use catchy phrases or sayings to get their consumers attention. The Big Mac phrase, two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun, is an example of that. That particular phase gets stuck in children’s heads just like a cartoon them song. Another marketing technique is the Happy Meal’s McDonald s use to get kids to eat at their restaurant. They use Disney or other popular TV characters as toys so children will focus more on getting a toy with their Happy Meal. McDonald's sells on average 2.5 million Happy Meals annually. The fast food restaurant chain introduced the Happy Meal in 1979, and first Happy Meal had a circus theme and had toys like spinning tops and an Identification bracelets. As kids grow up they move on from buying the Happy Meals, but continue to buy food from the fast food chains that they are accustom to. The fast food industry know that they need to obtain their customers while they are young because they know that even though the children have matured into adults they will still eat the food they ate when they were little. To be honest it’s more like a habit to buy fast food than a necessity .
Throughout the years of fast food the main target for the industy was children. The fast food industry targets children because children are easily influeneced. Children are influenced by anything from cartoon characters to toys. Parents are also easily influenced by their children. Parents are determined to stop the cry of their children wanting fast food and they would do anything to stop it. Parents were so eager to stop thier child's cry for fast food or anything because some parents felt guilty for not spending enough time with their kids, so they spent their money.
In Chapter 2, Scholosser tals about the two main companies for targeting children, which are Disney and McDonalds. Disney and McDonalds targeted children by creating characters, toys, t-shirts, commercials, and lots of other things. Their commercials were designed to get children to ask their parents for the product. McDonalds even went as far as building their own playhouse inside the restuarant just to attract more children and creating cartoon characters for the child's entertainment. These companies looked at thier techniques as more children, more money.
After reading Chapter 3, "Your Trusted Friend," I felt the way McDonald's and other large companies are targeting children is kind of a dirty way to make money. I believe it is equivalent as tricking them into buying a product. The way that these companies get these children to buy their things is by making them want it from using commercials with things such as toys, popular movies, mascots, and other things that appeal to children. For example, the Joe Camel cigarette company had a cartoon character that was "cool" and children thought that smoking was cool. Therefore, children wanted to buy cigarettes and smoke.
Also, parents nowadays have jobs with long hours so they don't have much time to spend with their children. Going through the feeling of guilt, instead of spending time with their children, they spend money instead. This also brings up the fact that when a child wants something, they will ask or beg for it and the parent will buy it for them. Products such as McDonald's happy meals appeal to children and when they want it, the parent will get it for them.
McDonald's restaurants even have a playground. Who wouldn't want to go to a restaurant with a playground? Children like these type of things and you can even get a happy meal. These meals are specially designed to appeal to kids because it comes with a toy in every box.
Big companies target children on the Internet, too. Before the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act in 2000, children were giving their personal information to big companies such as their name, their favorite foods, and their favorite sports team without their parents' permission. In doing so, these companies will know what children like so they can make a product that will appeal to them even more. It's like taking all of your favorite things and putting it together to make something extraordinary.
Xavier hill The fast food industy markets to children in many different ways. The most common way is to give the children gifts. At most fast food companies they give toys to both girls in boys. They usually give away cars or dolls. In McDonalds happy meals they have a kid friendly box to give to the children with a smiley face on it. They also have mascots they appeal to the children to make them want the high priced food that comes with a cheap toy. McDonald's Ronald McDonald mascot is one of the most influencial characters in the fast food business. Making commercials with the mascot and with toys of cartoons that children love influcence children to convince their parents to buy them the food just to get the toys. Now companies are trying to make children more healthy. MacDonalds now has apples and milk for the children. The ethincs of targeting children is great for making money but it is a low blow. I think it is a very smart idea because some parents with get their children whatever they want. Its is bad to target children with unhealthy fast food but they have inproved this by adding healthier foods for the children at the same expensive price.
In Chapter 3, Schlosser discusses how the fast food industry targets children. Children are easier to persuade than their parents are so the fast food industry creates advertisements and commercials with cartoon characters, and toys. Some parents believe that if their child wants something, they’re going to get it. Every month there is a popular toy that’s being giving away with kids meals. This makes kids want the toy so they begging/crying for fast food. These fast food places know that kids love toys so they bribe them. Toys are one of the main attractions in the fast food industry. Children don’t know that the fast food industry is very manipulative. They don’t know that when a picture of their favorite cartoon character is advertised, it is to attract them so they could make money. McDonalds and Walt Disney are two of the most persuasive environments for kids. At McDonalds, there is a modern playground with bright colors and interior. Some kids are so amused by McDonalds, they have parties there. Ronald McDonald is another thing that persuades kids. He’s a life-sized friendly clown who’s always smiling. Walt Disney has created so many things to attracted kids attention, such as a lot of cartoon characters, TV Show, DisneyLand, and DisneyWorld. Mickey and Minnie mouse are two famous characters that kids love. Walt Disney advertises Disney 365, which influences kids to want to visit Florida and/or California. The ethnics of the food marketing are to bribe children to get their parents money. Some parents are so influenced by their kids that they would buy their child anything, even unhealthy foods. Children don’t know that fast food is really unhealthy but it’s their parents fault for not stepping up to the plate. Fast foods are trying to improve their menus by adding healthier foods.
In chapter 2, it states how the author believes that McDonald's advertisements are mostly focused towards kids. I feel as though this is a good thing because McDonald's is a fast food place for kids. They created play houses and toys just to draw their attention. It also shows how McDonald's care about the kids. Not only can adults enjoy a nice meal but also the kids with their happy meals. This meal also includes a toy to draw and keep the little kids attention. McDonald's has made so much profit and publicity because of this. McDonald's is nationally known for its happy meals and toys that bring joy to these little kids faces. They have made many commercials trying to sell their meals just by targeting and focusing on the likes of kids. And making Ronald McDonald as a fun and happy person is also a good advertising technique.This as well attracts kids of almost all ages. The movie,The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald, is also another advertising technique that drew in kids of every age. Targeting kids is good because if the kids see and want there is a big chance the adults are going to give them what they want and that's more profit. McDonald's is a family oriented restaurant and most people appreciate them for that.
TaiRhe TurnerChapter 3 focuses on the children around the world. Everything about the fast food industry is a mind game. They put playhouses in the restaurants, which appeal to the kids. This makes them want to go there more often, along with the artificial food taste. Henceforth, even as a child may outgrow the playhouses, they have instilled in their minds the good memories of McDonalds. This is one way they keep customers, almost through mind control. All the advertisement is to attract customers. And they have advertisement for all ages. They don’t discriminate because it’s all about the money. And if money has no age discrimination, why should McDonalds? It only makes sense to get every customer you can. Possibly this would move one to work there when old enough. To just think of everything that is there to appeal to kids is remarkable. Playhouses, free toys, Ronald McDonald (the mascot/ a clown), and meals set aside specifically for kids. Almost sounds like heaven for a young one. The only problem I have with this field of their work is that the child will continue to eat this appealing food whether it’s hurting them or not. Though this is the bulk of the parents’ responsibility to take care of their child’s eating habits and health, it still isn’t right that the healthy choices on these menus are very limited in comparison to the junk (food) that is up there.
This chapter talks about two main people and they are Ray Kroc and Walt Disney. It mentions there road to success and how they did it in similar ways. The most popular attractions around this time were Mc Donald’s and Walt Disney. Both men were born in Illinois and fought in world war I. These two men shared the same vision of America and have the same political views. Disneyland is the place where kids love to be and enjoy themselves. This historic place opened in July of 1955 and had a event the same day involving Ronald Reagan. Kroc was so involved with politics he gave250,000 to president Nixon reelection campaign. Another way that the two organizations are similar was in how they attracted the children. Before the 1980’s “the decade of the child consumer,” major companies did not have as much of an interest in the children as it did it’s older consumers. They used “cradle-to-grave” advertisement strategies which used nostalgic child hood memories to increase future consumption (E. Schlosser Fast Food Nation 43). Mc Donald’s used a happy meal to attract kids by adding a toy with the meal. Kids really enjoy this and this one of the most popular orders on the menu. Disneyland has their own way of attracting the younger crowd. The theme park uses a various arsenal of rides, different foods, and games. The park also has Disney channel characters for enjoyment bonding with kids who look up to them and love to watch all the time. The theme is same for both attractions and that is to satisfy the customer no matter how young or old. Mc Donald’s and Disney also have the play land where kids can play on obstacle courses and slide down slides. The two places are truly a kids bestfriend.
Since I was a child, I noticed how fast food companies had a way of targeting young children. These companies would create meals specifically for young kids by taking any small-priced item, such as chicken nuggets or the basic hamburger, and add a toy to it. Usually the toy was based off a movie that was coming out at the time or any cheap Barbie doll or watch. McDonald's however seemed to have been targeting young kids from the beginning. By having a clown as one of the main images for the company, as well as creating sidekicks like the Hamburgler and Birdie the Early Bird, as well as creating a huge indoor Playplace, McDonald’s is making it hard for people to disagree that their main targets are children. Some fast food restaurants have outside equipment for young children to play on, but McDonald’s stepped it up a notch by creating an indoor Playplace. I think the ethics of having kids as targets of fast food restaurants is dangerous because most of the food offered is not good for a child’s health. It is okay to have as a snack here and there but to make it part of the lifestyle is dangerous. It’s sickening at how they target children to come to their restaurants. Their tactics and ploys are so convincing that any kid would be dying to get their store for the latest toy. Although targeting kids is a good way to make business, I do not agree with the idea and very against it. I think these companies should come up with better ways to satisfy their customers instead of dragging them in with idea of getting a gift after eating one of their meals. I believe such an act is pathetic and truly unethical.
Mahalia Dees
ReplyDeleteThe fast food industry uses many tactics to lure children into wanting their product. Most of the time, companies will use advertisements with cartoons and bright colors to attract children’s attention, even just for a 30 second commercial, just enough time to introduce the cartoon and have it tell them how much they want this particular food. Sometimes companies will use an event or topic that is currently “cool” to children and link their product with that event or topic. Other times companies will use an ad with an average child in an everyday situation, so children can relate to the character, which shows the child how extraordinary their lives will become if they get this product. Companies may also hire celebrity spokespeople from popular children’s television shows.
Schlosser states that some companies even have “cradle-to-grave” plans of advertisement. This means that companies will gear their ads towards a specific age group for their entire lifetime in hopes that they will keep brand loyalty their entire lives.
McDonald’s and other companies that we remember as a child, seems to sell something other than their product, products that are intangible. They sell imagination for toddlers, with toys and food that is individually wrapped. They sell rewards for the child or adolescent who received an A on their report card. They sell happy childhood memories for adults who remember the times their parents took them to McDonald’s. It is these strong emotional ties that keep people coming back to their product.
However, there is much skepticism about the ethics to luring children at such young ages. People may say that companies are “corrupting children’s minds,” especially companies that do not sell products that children will directly use like cars and heating oil. Some researchers say it is because parents feel guilty that they are not spending much time with their children, so to make up, they buy them whatever they want.
Dillon Glapion
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 3, the book gives many reasons on how fast food industries, and other companies attracted children to their business. Companies used commercials that specifically target children because a child’s attention is the easiest to grab hold of. The companies would create these commercials and create child-friendly characters to go along with them. One of the first characters that McDonalds introduced was Speedee. Speedee was a winking chef with a hamburger for a head. Farther down the line the McDonalds mascot changed to Ronald McDonald. He was deemed to overweight at first. He appealed to the children because he was dressed like a clown. Other ways of bringing children to their business was to actually put a child or a parent into the actual commercial. This provoked the advertisement business to show that real people use these products not just cartoons.
Walt Disney, the founder of Disney, had his work cut out for him. He had a character called Mickey Mouse who easily drew children to his company. Another huge aspect of his advertising came from his large amusement park called Disneyland. He also came up with the brilliant idea of Tomorrowland. Tomorrowland showed the aspects of space travel all the way to household products of the future. The Magic Kingdom was created to show how Walt Disney was going to have an affect on the Hollywood industry. This appealed to children because children watch a lot of television. The Disney channel also brought in a lot of children spectators because of their cartoons. On a side note, Nickelodeon also created their station to lure in children to their company.
To the actual business, luring children to their company is a good thing obviously because it brings better business. Children are easy to target and if something is appealing to them then they are going to beg for it. McDonalds using toys and kid’s meals to lure children to their company was the perfect way to get child business. Some other people may think that it is not ethical at all to mainly target children to a company just for better business. They think that it is unethical to use a child just so the company can make a better profit.
Precious Ingram
ReplyDeleteThe many fast food industries market and advertise to their largest crowd and beloved customers, children. The fast food chain owners feel that they must make their food appealing to the younger crowd in order for them to survive and thrive in the fast food business. The owner of McDonalds, Ray Kroc realized that he needed to change the marketing strategy for McDonalds; Ray Kroc aimed for the children instead of families. Ray Kroc explains that if a child who loves McDonald’s commercials brings their grandparents to a McDonalds that gives McDonalds two more customers. Many of the fast food chains use the imagination of children and produce things that are pleasing to them like putting toys in happy meals, decorating the place with vibrant colors, and a jovial mascot. Fast food chains spend majority of their profit on marketing than anything; Schlosser points out that McDonalds spends more money on advertising than any other brand in all industries combined, helping it replace Coca-Cola as the world's most famous brand. Fast food chains advertisements have one goal and that is to capture the attention of children and persuade them into buying their products.
The fast food chains have certain principles when it comes to targeting children for advertising. Fast food chains major focus is placed on children with working parents who will feel guilty for not spending time with their children forcing them to buy their children things. Fast food chains are making children into “surrogate salesmen” because they are able to persuade their parents to buy anything they wanted. The goal of children advertising is to get kids to nag their parents until they get what they want. The fast food industry using children as their salesmen is one reason why the target children. According to James U. McNeal, a professor of marketing, explains the many ways children get their parent to purchase what the child desires. There are 7 major categories: pleading nags, persistent nags, forceful nags, demonstrative nags, sugar-coated nags, threatening nags, and pity nags. These are the ways that a child can and will get their parents to buy that item they really want. The other principle that fast food industry must follow when targeting children is finding out what kids like to eat. In order to fulfill this task advertisers observe and question children to find out what they like overall. They also study the artwork and activities children like to do. Fast food chains use TV stations such as nickelodeon and cartoon network to put out advertisements. These fast food chains have mastered the art of advertising and marketing to children which is why fast food restaurants are powerful and will remain powerful for many years.
Ambre Reed
ReplyDeleteFast food industry uses several appeals to target children. Fast food industries make their commercials similar to children shows, use bright colors, toys, and other things that attract children. These companies know that once they have hooked a child to their product they have potential lifetime customers. Children obviously don’t have money so that attracts adults. Those child customers turn into adults who buy the company’s products and a cycle has begun. Fast food companies target younger children because they know that they will continue to use their products in the future. Producing long-term customers is what fast food companies would rather do.
The fast food industry preys on children because they are easy targets. In chapter 3 it was stated that most children couldn’t tell a television show from a commercial. Sooner than later children became familiar with the products they saw on television and requested them. If the advertisers could figure out what children liked then they had the ability to affect the way they behaved to get their products.
When cartoon like commercials fail fast food companies somewhat bribe their target audience. In 1997 10 million happy meals were sold on average in a week, but when Beanie Babies were put inside each Happy Meal 100 million were sold in a week. Kids love toys and putting them inside their food is a huge plus. Almost every fast food establishment puts a toy in their kid’s meal to insure that the child customers were pleased, not necessarily with the food, but the reward they got from coming.
After toys food companies resulted to making personal connections to their customers. Franchise like McDonald’s made personal commercials that presented them as a trusted friend to their customers a company that cared about it customers. In reality they were just willing to do anything to make a sell.
Asia Harris
ReplyDeleteThrough history the fast food industry has targeted children in several ways. They believe that once they have a child in tuned with something it would stick with them the rest of their lies ultimately keeping a life-long customer. Although the food is amazing in its own way the kids are drawn to not only their favorite meal but a new toy they seen their best friend playing with at school. Furthermore, the fast food industry has come far along in this day and age with targeting children, before they just served different types of toys varying on the sex of the child with their food. Now they incorporate big time movies and cartoon characters favored by kids. The different big time Hollywood names favored by kids throughout the world can be easily retrievable with a meal if they just get their parents to bring them.
As children then grow into adults they don’t stop the temptation of going to these fast food restaurants. Yes, they have grown in to adults, toys no longer serve a purpose to them but by now they are hooked to the food and before you know it their children will be as well, just like a chain reaction. Just think if they destroyed every fast food industry, how mankind would react. Would they be able to accept it? It would not only increase the prices of the food but it would take away a person’s child hood memories. Would it ultimately cause one into depression? Just think about the effects fast food had on your child hood. Do you want this same addiction over your child’s head?
Peter Huynh
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 3, Schlosser talks about how the fast food industry targets children. Children are an easy target for the fast food industry because it is easy to get them to like their products. Ray Kroc, the owner of McDonalds, wanted to improve business by targeting children. Since children are to get at, McDonalds advertised the products in many ways. One of the popular ways to advertise was through commercials. What they used in the commercials was something appealing to children like cartoons and mascots. They would try to convince the children to go eat at McDonalds and how it is a good thing. Also, if children go then they would need their parents to bring them which would be good for business too because it would be more customers. Another thing that would get kids to eat fast foods is when the fast food restaurants put little toys with meals. Sometimes these toys would come in a set so the kids would have to come back multiple times.
There are also ethics of the fast food industry targeting children to buy their products. This involves the children’s parents. In order for children to get fast food, they have to try to get their parents to bring them there. In the book it talks about how there are different ways in order for parents to get their children what they want. These different ways are pleading nags, persistent nags, forceful nags, demonstrative nags, sugar-coated nags, threatening nags, and pit nags. Sometimes parents feel like in order to get their children’s love, they need to get them whatever they want. Other ways are parents being bribed or the kid has to constantly beg their parent to get them whatever they want. All these different ways has lead to the success of fast food industry.
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ReplyDeleteKierra Hitchens
ReplyDeleteFast food industries market to children in many ways. In fact studies show that children are actually the key to the success of many fast food industries. Marketing techniques that appeal to children are used throughout many of the companies.
Many industries appeal to children by their advertisements. Most of today’s advertisements for fast food chains are in forms of cartoons. Of course, cartoons appeal to children, it’s a part of their everyday lives. Industries also appeal to children by using bright color patterns and by simply catering to children. Fast food industries give many children a feeling of independence. McDonalds is a prime example of marketing to children. Every McDonalds has a happy meal, a meal designed especially for children, which comes with a brightly colored box with games, and a toy included with the child’s meal. Also each McDonald’s has a playground, something that will appeal to a child of any age. However companies like McDonalds strive to appeal to children so that they can reach adults.
Ray Krock explains the industries tactics the best. Krock stated that a child who loves McDonald’s commercials brings their grandparents to a McDonalds that gives McDonalds two more customers. Krock makes perfect t sense when it comes to fast food industries. The industry only cares about making money. Anew customer means an extra dollar made. Fast food markets also target parents with jobs. Parents with jobs often spend majority of their time working. Therefore, they have money and they also have children. However, fast food companies see them as guilty parents who will buy their child anything just to feel better as a parent. In the end most kids love the things they see on TV and parents are happy to buy their child a meal from McDonalds, Burger King, or another fast food chain.
There is one question to this day that has not yet been answered, is it ethical or unethical to market to children. Well I guess it depends who you ask. To a fast food industry it seems completely ethical. Children are easy targets and what appeals to them appeals to their parents. Children are the main factors that help many industries to stay successful. However if you ask any other normal company they might disagree. Marketing to children seems conniving, devious and completely unethical.
Chinedu Echebelem
ReplyDeleteSchlosser includes multiple reasons why and how fast food companies appeal to children with their products. Most fast food companies believe that making their product attractive to children and the younger adults will guarantee them the most success and prosperity of their company. Schlosser explains how guilty parents try to win their children over by buying them material things or general things that they desire. Fast Food companies took this into consideration when deciding on their advertising campaigns and marketing. Today’s companies know that individual grow up with certain brands. As a child, if you constantly wear one brand of clothing (and this designer creates adult clothing), why wouldn’t you wear? People grow accustom to things. Fast Food companies realized that people become loyal to certain brands and it all begins in their childhood. If you eat McDonalds as a child, you become accustom to it and will continue to eat it as an adult. When you decide to have children, they will eat it also, and the cycle continues from there.
Numerous companies use different technics to grab the eye of a child. One way is by their commercials. Schlosser talks about how companies will use bright colors, friendly and playful cartoon characters, and lively individuals. It is easier for companies to attract young gullible, and naïve children, than mature adults. However, these companies know with the attention of the child comes the attention of their parents.
One successful way that Fast Food Companies have marketed to children is by the manufacturing of toys, and development of play areas. It gives every child and parents more of a reason to want to go to a fast food restaurant. There’s a toy in every kids meal, and a play area to keep them busy after they’ve finished their meal. In the parents’ eyes that is free entertainment for their children. And who doesn’t like anything free?
Courtney Jackson,
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 3, “Your Trusted Friends” the fast food industry is trying to get more customers that are children. The fast food industries use many types of advertisements to get the children to recognize their restaurant. Companies use commercials, bright colors, playgrounds, toys, mascots, and etc to get the children’s attention. Some companies even use cartoons. Schlosser states that a “market research has found that children often recognize a brand logo before they can recognize their own name”, which shows how the companies tend to have a symbol or a mascot to represent their industry so they can easily be remembered. He also states “the growth in children’s advertising has been driven by the efforts to increase not just current, but also future, consumption.” Which means that their advertisements that are specifically for the children is to hopefully make them want to purchase that product for the rest of his or her life.
McDonald’s playgrounds have seesaws, slides, and pits full plastic balls at the restaurant which is mainly for the kids. The playground draws the children to the restaurant because they were able to eat and play at the same time. McDonald’s included toys in their Happy Meals that are intended for children between the ages of three and nine, but sometimes an adult will purchase a Happy Meal just for the toy. Who wouldn’t mind getting a free toy with a purchase of a meal?
However, without the advertisements set for the children, the fast food industry will not have as many customers as they do now. Also without the children nagging their parents to take them to the fast food restaurant to get them that product is another way that could decrease sales in that company. Advertisement is the most important thing in a business and it makes that company successful among with other things.
In chapter 2, Schlosser discusses the techniques that fast food industries use when targeting “kid kustomers.” Fast food industries began to create mascots, sell merchandise, and use advertisements that were appealing to children.
ReplyDeleteMcDonalds created the mascot Ronald McDonald after the T.V. show Bozo’s Circus was cancelled to be a part of their ad campaign. What child could resist a happy, brightly colored clown who promoted their favorite foods? McDonalds also built small playlands and McDonaldlands all over the U.S. When small children see those playlands it is bound to get their attention.
“Restaurant chains evoked a series of pleasing images in a youngster’s mind: bright colors, a playground, a toy, a clown, a drink with a straw, little pieces of food wrapped up like a present.” All of these things are appealing to children drawing them in just as marketers knew they would. Ad agencies now have children divisions who focus mainly on marketing to a younger crowd.
Children’s clubs are an effective way of targeting ads and collecting demographic information. Corporations use them to solicit names, addresses, zip codes, and personal comments of young customers. “A well-designed and well-run children’s club can be extremely good for business.” Burger King’s Burger King Kids Club increased the sales of children’s meals as much as 300 percent.
The use of the internet became a large marketing tool for the fast food industry. The McDonalds website encouraged kids to send Ronald an e-mail revealing their favorite food at McDonalds, their favorite book, sports team, and name. All of this could be used to gain new marketing ideas and strategies. Fast food ads began to show up in schools in their hallways and on the sides of buses. Now fast food ads are being promoted on Channel One, the commercial television network programming that is shown in classrooms almost every day. The biggest marketing tool that the fast food industry came up with was the free toys given in happy meals. Not only did it catch the eye of children but some adults as well. At one time McDonalds included Teenie Beanie Babies in their happy meals. McDonalds sold 100 million Happy Meals in a week because of this.
In chapter two of Fast Food Nation, the author discussed the technique of marketing to children. It is interesting that corporations would want to target children at such a young age, but it is very smart. From personal experience, I remember a lot of things from my childhood, such as the toys I received, the food I ate, type of clothes I wore, the TV shows I watched and much more. One of the schemes, “brand loyalty”, is the most impressive in my opinion because I was a successful target in that theory. Brand Loyalty is to have a child hooked on something at a young age with a good memory of it. Anything associated with a good memory will be revisited since a lot of people stick to things that they are happily familiar with. When I was a kid, the toys sold with kid’s meals were definitely played with. Although the cheap little toys were thrown away probably after a week because by then I got a new one from the fast food restaurant, some were still cherished.
ReplyDeleteI can say I am guilty of begging my parents for toys or something at a young age that I wanted really badly because I saw it on a commercial or some other type of advertisement. I was never the child to whine about it though because I understood my boundaries with my parents. Schlosser refers to another book Kids as Customers written by James U. McNeal. McNeal talks about the different type of nags that children perform to get what they want. People have probably seen all the different type of nags whether it’s from their own child or witnessed another child do it to their parents. Some of that tactics are not respectful and devious toward parents. McNeal is not condoning bad behavior toward parents from a child to get a toy, but believes that a kid one way or the other should favor the good morals of a company.
I only agree with targeting children for marketing if it is for the good of the child. It is wrong to take advantage of the power to control what a kid could like at such a young age. For example, the tobacco commercials that target children should never had been allowed. All the toxic things in tobacco should not be something appealing to kids, yet these type of companies want to trick the kids into thinking that whatever is in a cigarette is harmless and cool. At a young age, children are exposed to lies. Although it is a parent’s responsibility to monitor these types of things, the thought of wanting to target children with harmful products should not be favored.
Taylor Reuther
ReplyDeleteAdvertisement for fast food restaurants is a huge way to get customers to purchase their items. The question becomes whether the advertising is ethical or not. Children and families are usually the target of these ads.
The number one way that McDonalds advertises to children is with the Happy Meal. The kids do not care about what kind of food is in there because all they are worried about is which toy they get. This provides a concern for healthiness because the kids do not even worry about eating a healthy meal since all they are concerned with is getting a toy with their food. The kids will maliciously harass their parents until they take them to McDonalds because they want the toy that bad. Schlosser talks about how parents take their kids places like fast food restaurants to make up time they have not been spending with the child. The parents just assume they can buy their kids happiness back with a dinky little toy from McDonalds, and sometimes it is true because that is how much the kid “needs” the toy.
Another way McDonalds advertises to kids is by using their mascot, Ronald McDonald. In commercials that kids see on television, Ronald McDonald is always in happy situations promoting a thing that kids want to see like sports, skating, buying balloons, etc. Worldwide, kids know who Ronald McDonald is better than most other popular characters because they see him on television nonstop promoting McDonalds.
The play sets at McDonalds are also a huge kid attraction and selling point. The kids go inside to buy their food, and while the parents wait in line the kid goes and plays on the play set. Most of the time whenever the food is actually ready the kid will refuse to come off of the play set and eat. This creates a problem for the family and might cause a restaurant-wide scene.
Although McDonalds does a nice job advertising to children, it is unethical. They are promoting things that are unhealthy using toys as bait. Ronald McDonald cannot solve the problem of hunger or world piece, but he is becoming young adolescents role models. The play sets are fun and all, but kids do not listen to their parents when they say it is time to go. All of these advertisements create problems for the kids and for the parents.
Schlosser delves into the manipulative means of the fast food industry in chapter two. He reveals that the wide focus of the fast food industry is towards children. The industry is targeting the young children in order to hook them into fast food and keep them as customers for a long time. This is very depressing and conniving. Before reading this chapter, I regarded playplaces in McDonalds as a fun and safe place for kids. What used to be an innocent playground is now understood to be baits for families with young children and no time to be able to cook dinner or make lunches. In addition to that, the fast food industry reels more children into this fake, happy world by their commercials on television. Studies show that children cannot tell from regular shows and commercials. Even with this knowledge, the heartless fast food industry still preys upon young children. The commercials even teach the kids how to ask, beg, and nag for their parents to get them certain things. This greed for lifelong customers moved over to schools too. Children today are surrounded by advertisement, egging them to purchase and consume their products. These advertisements can be found in schools, shopping centers, libraries, recreational places.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely unethical to target children, especially with unhealthy fast food. These industries only look to their own profit. They do not care for the well being of their consumers. They manipulate naïve and immature children; however, they continue “corrupting children’s minds”. I strongly believe that the people at the top of these food industries may work there, but will not encourage their own children to eat the food. If it were up to me, I would not allow fast food advertising in schools. I would ban fast food to young children. The early years of children are the years where they are shaped and pointed in the right path. Introducing them to fast food is pushing them down a destructive path. It seems as though the United States, the “Land of Opportunity”, is also the land of corruption. You just need to look close enough and you will find it almost everywhere.
Anthony Poche
ReplyDeleteTowards the latter part of Chapter 2, Schlosser exposes the plans of McDonald’s and other corporations in the fast food industry to exploit children. They companies set out to advertise to children in every single outlet they possibly could. They began running commercials during children’s shows and cartoons featuring children their own age. They had play areas in their restaurants, gave free toys away (with the purchase of a meal), and took on kid friendly mascots like clowns and furry animals. These exploitations ran so deep they manipulated the psychological relationship between parent and child as a whole and its individual components. With apparent parallels and connections to Disney children now saw places like McDonald’s as the next best thing. This put an unreasonably large amount of pressure on parents. Since children were constantly exposed to the “magic of McDonald’s” through relentless advertising they were just as relentless in imploring that they be brought to McDonald’s. Here the exploitation effects the whole family because now a parent will have to take their child in order to keep their children happy, in turn making them feel good about themselves, and ultimately keeping the whole family happy and in good spirits.
The cold, calculated act of putting children in their “cross-hairs” doesn’t seem to phase these corporate fast food giants in the slightest. They seem to be satisfied as long as their reputation is intact and they’re making a profit. These corporations can now advertise on television, billboards, public transportation, posters, and even in schools. Young Americans are bombarded nearly at all times when they are awake. Now that their actions are brought to light it’s apparent that it isn’t particularly ethical to market to children so aggressively because they are very impressionable and can’t really “defend” themselves when it comes to these kinds of “attacks.”
Anh Phuong Dang
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 2, it states that about twenty-five years ago, only a handful of American companies directed their marketing at children. Examples were Disney, McDonald's, candy makers, toy makers, and manufacturers of breakfast cereal. Today children are being targeted by numerous companies. Children's advertisement started during the 1980s because many working parents felt guilty about not spending enough time with their children, so they started spending their money on them. Advertisement wasn't to get kids to whine to their parents, it was to give them a reason to ask their parents for the products. Advertisers conducts surveys to children, send cultural anthropologists into homes, stores, or fast food restaurants, and many other places where kids like to eat and observe their behavior. One good example of advertisement to kids over the past few decades was a character on the McDonald's website names Ronald McDonald. The site was expected for kids to send Ronald an e-mail telling him their favorite thing to eat on the menu item at McDonald's.
Fast food advertisement is extremely important in directing kids because kids are the main customers. It is heavily marketed to children and prepared by people who are barely older than children.
The fast food industry’s marketing to children is both basic and complex because of the simple fact that most of their advertisements are focused towards the age of eight and lower, but they have to use a unique ploy to catch the children eyes. For example the McDonalds playhouse is a marketing tactic to get kids to want to come to their restaurant and play, but in the process it provides customers to them. McDonalds like other companies use catchy phrases or sayings to get their consumers attention. The Big Mac phrase, two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun, is an example of that. That particular phase gets stuck in children’s heads just like a cartoon them song.
ReplyDeleteAnother marketing technique is the Happy Meal’s McDonald s use to get kids to eat at their restaurant. They use Disney or other popular TV characters as toys so children will focus more on getting a toy with their Happy Meal. McDonald's sells on average 2.5 million Happy Meals annually. The fast food restaurant chain introduced the Happy Meal in 1979, and first Happy Meal had a circus theme and had toys like spinning tops and an Identification bracelets.
As kids grow up they move on from buying the Happy Meals, but continue to buy food from the fast food chains that they are accustom to. The fast food industry know that they need to obtain their customers while they are young because they know that even though the children have matured into adults they will still eat the food they ate when they were little. To be honest it’s more like a habit to buy fast food than a necessity .
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ReplyDeleteUnique Jacob
ReplyDeleteThroughout the years of fast food the main target for the industy was children. The fast food industry targets children because children are easily influeneced. Children are influenced by anything from cartoon characters to toys. Parents are also easily influenced by their children. Parents are determined to stop the cry of their children wanting fast food and they would do anything to stop it. Parents were so eager to stop thier child's cry for fast food or anything because some parents felt guilty for not spending enough time with their kids, so they spent their money.
In Chapter 2, Scholosser tals about the two main companies for targeting children, which are Disney and McDonalds. Disney and McDonalds targeted children by creating characters, toys, t-shirts, commercials, and lots of other things. Their commercials were designed to get children to ask their parents for the product. McDonalds even went as far as building their own playhouse inside the restuarant just to attract more children and creating cartoon characters for the child's entertainment. These companies looked at thier techniques as more children, more money.
Minh Luan Nguyen
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Chapter 3, "Your Trusted Friend," I felt the way McDonald's and other large companies are targeting children is kind of a dirty way to make money. I believe it is equivalent as tricking them into buying a product. The way that these companies get these children to buy their things is by making them want it from using commercials with things such as toys, popular movies, mascots, and other things that appeal to children. For example, the Joe Camel cigarette company had a cartoon character that was "cool" and children thought that smoking was cool. Therefore, children wanted to buy cigarettes and smoke.
Also, parents nowadays have jobs with long hours so they don't have much time to spend with their children. Going through the feeling of guilt, instead of spending time with their children, they spend money instead. This also brings up the fact that when a child wants something, they will ask or beg for it and the parent will buy it for them. Products such as McDonald's happy meals appeal to children and when they want it, the parent will get it for them.
McDonald's restaurants even have a playground. Who wouldn't want to go to a restaurant with a playground? Children like these type of things and you can even get a happy meal. These meals are specially designed to appeal to kids because it comes with a toy in every box.
Big companies target children on the Internet, too. Before the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act in 2000, children were giving their personal information to big companies such as their name, their favorite foods, and their favorite sports team without their parents' permission. In doing so, these companies will know what children like so they can make a product that will appeal to them even more. It's like taking all of your favorite things and putting it together to make something extraordinary.
Xavier hill
ReplyDeleteThe fast food industy markets to children in many different ways. The most common way is to give the children gifts. At most fast food companies they give toys to both girls in boys. They usually give away cars or dolls. In McDonalds happy meals they have a kid friendly box to give to the children with a smiley face on it. They also have mascots they appeal to the children to make them want the high priced food that comes with a cheap toy. McDonald's Ronald McDonald mascot is one of the most influencial characters in the fast food business. Making commercials with the mascot and with toys of cartoons that children love influcence children to convince their parents to buy them the food just to get the toys. Now companies are trying to make children more healthy. MacDonalds now has apples and milk for the children.
The ethincs of targeting children is great for making money but it is a low blow. I think it is a very smart idea because some parents with get their children whatever they want. Its is bad to target children with unhealthy fast food but they have inproved this by adding healthier foods for the children at the same expensive price.
In Chapter 3, Schlosser discusses how the fast food industry targets children. Children are easier to persuade than their parents are so the fast food industry creates advertisements and commercials with cartoon characters, and toys. Some parents believe that if their child wants something, they’re going to get it. Every month there is a popular toy that’s being giving away with kids meals. This makes kids want the toy so they begging/crying for fast food. These fast food places know that kids love toys so they bribe them. Toys are one of the main attractions in the fast food industry. Children don’t know that the fast food industry is very manipulative. They don’t know that when a picture of their favorite cartoon character is advertised, it is to attract them so they could make money.
ReplyDeleteMcDonalds and Walt Disney are two of the most persuasive environments for kids. At McDonalds, there is a modern playground with bright colors and interior. Some kids are so amused by McDonalds, they have parties there. Ronald McDonald is another thing that persuades kids. He’s a life-sized friendly clown who’s always smiling. Walt Disney has created so many things to attracted kids attention, such as a lot of cartoon characters, TV Show, DisneyLand, and DisneyWorld. Mickey and Minnie mouse are two famous characters that kids love. Walt Disney advertises Disney 365, which influences kids to want to visit Florida and/or California.
The ethnics of the food marketing are to bribe children to get their parents money. Some parents are so influenced by their kids that they would buy their child anything, even unhealthy foods. Children don’t know that fast food is really unhealthy but it’s their parents fault for not stepping up to the plate. Fast foods are trying to improve their menus by adding healthier foods.
Kelly Johnson
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 2, it states how the author believes that McDonald's advertisements are mostly focused towards kids. I feel as though this is a good thing because McDonald's is a fast food place for kids. They created play houses and toys just to draw their attention. It also shows how McDonald's care about the kids. Not only can adults enjoy a nice meal but also the kids with their happy meals. This meal also includes a toy to draw and keep the little kids attention. McDonald's has made so much profit and publicity because of this. McDonald's is nationally known for its happy meals and toys that bring joy to these little kids faces. They have made many commercials trying to sell their meals just by targeting and focusing on the likes of kids. And making Ronald McDonald as a fun and happy person is also a good advertising technique.This as well attracts kids of almost all ages. The movie,The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald, is also another advertising technique that drew in kids of every age.
Targeting kids is good because if the kids see and want there is a big chance the adults are going to give them what they want and that's more profit. McDonald's is a family oriented restaurant and most people appreciate them for that.
TaiRhe TurnerChapter 3 focuses on the children around the world. Everything about the fast food industry is a mind game. They put playhouses in the restaurants, which appeal to the kids. This makes them want to go there more often, along with the artificial food taste. Henceforth, even as a child may outgrow the playhouses, they have instilled in their minds the good memories of McDonalds. This is one way they keep customers, almost through mind control. All the advertisement is to attract customers. And they have advertisement for all ages. They don’t discriminate because it’s all about the money. And if money has no age discrimination, why should McDonalds? It only makes sense to get every customer you can. Possibly this would move one to work there when old enough. To just think of everything that is there to appeal to kids is remarkable. Playhouses, free toys, Ronald McDonald (the mascot/ a clown), and meals set aside specifically for kids. Almost sounds like heaven for a young one. The only problem I have with this field of their work is that the child will continue to eat this appealing food whether it’s hurting them or not. Though this is the bulk of the parents’ responsibility to take care of their child’s eating habits and health, it still isn’t right that the healthy choices on these menus are very limited in comparison to the junk (food) that is up there.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter talks about two main people and they are Ray Kroc and Walt Disney. It mentions there road to success and how they did it in similar ways. The most popular attractions around this time were Mc Donald’s and Walt Disney. Both men were born in Illinois and fought in world war I. These two men shared the same vision of America and have the same political views. Disneyland is the place where kids love to be and enjoy themselves. This historic place opened in July of 1955 and had a event the same day involving Ronald Reagan. Kroc was so involved with politics he gave250,000 to president Nixon reelection campaign.
ReplyDeleteAnother way that the two organizations are similar was in how they attracted the children. Before the 1980’s “the decade of the child consumer,” major companies did not have as much of an interest in the children as it did it’s older consumers. They used “cradle-to-grave” advertisement strategies which used nostalgic child hood memories to increase future consumption (E. Schlosser Fast Food Nation 43). Mc Donald’s used a happy meal to attract kids by adding a toy with the meal. Kids really enjoy this and this one of the most popular orders on the menu. Disneyland has their own way of attracting the younger crowd. The theme park uses a various arsenal of rides, different foods, and games. The park also has Disney channel characters for enjoyment bonding with kids who look up to them and love to watch all the time. The theme is same for both attractions and that is to satisfy the customer no matter how young or old. Mc Donald’s and Disney also have the play land where kids can play on obstacle courses and slide down slides. The two places are truly a kids bestfriend.
Charity Crain
ReplyDeleteSince I was a child, I noticed how fast food companies had a way of targeting young children. These companies would create meals specifically for young kids by taking any small-priced item, such as chicken nuggets or the basic hamburger, and add a toy to it. Usually the toy was based off a movie that was coming out at the time or any cheap Barbie doll or watch. McDonald's however seemed to have been targeting young kids from the beginning. By having a clown as one of the main images for the company, as well as creating sidekicks like the Hamburgler and Birdie the Early Bird, as well as creating a huge indoor Playplace, McDonald’s is making it hard for people to disagree that their main targets are children. Some fast food restaurants have outside equipment for young children to play on, but McDonald’s stepped it up a notch by creating an indoor Playplace.
I think the ethics of having kids as targets of fast food restaurants is dangerous because most of the food offered is not good for a child’s health. It is okay to have as a snack here and there but to make it part of the lifestyle is dangerous. It’s sickening at how they target children to come to their restaurants. Their tactics and ploys are so convincing that any kid would be dying to get their store for the latest toy. Although targeting kids is a good way to make business, I do not agree with the idea and very against it. I think these companies should come up with better ways to satisfy their customers instead of dragging them in with idea of getting a gift after eating one of their meals. I believe such an act is pathetic and truly unethical.