From the SuperSizeMe Board
First watch Precious Mar 07, 07:49 AM [ Reply ]
I watched this movie last night for the first time and it really got me thinking about responsibility...
Why should McDonalds be held responsible for the products they sell? If someone wants to buy a supersize meal, then that is their choice. They don't have to - it is up to an individual to exercise their free will. Supposing supersize is taken off the menu (I don't know about US, I a, writing from the UK) then someone who is inclined to buy a supersize will instead buy two larger meals - so what is the point of taking it off the menu?
What I do object to very strongly are two things:
1. child focused/placed advertisments.
2. The food lobby
With respect to the first point, I think this is a highly effective but highly 'distasteful' practice of targetted marketing, which should not be permitted. One one level very clever - tie them in young and they are there forever. But with products that are in excess, so damaging, then how can it be accepted?
THe food lobby seem to have such an extrordinary and powerful grip over the legislative process that pretty much anything they want, they seem to get... irrespective of the damage that it causes.
Obesity needs to be dealt with on many levels - through preventative healthcare and direct campaigning. For example, with cigarettes the amount of campaigning against smoking - ads showing the effects: cancer, lost family members etc: When will ads show the perils of obesity: heart attack, deformed, bloated bodies, T2 diabeties etc etc. Perhaps it will take shock tactics to make the 'west' listen.
Perhaps a more pragmatic view needs to be adopted.
Now here's a thorny point. Why not tax fast food. If a supersize big mac meal cost $15, how many takers would there be. Why not? why not make those who eat this stuff, pay for their care? we do with smokers, we do with car drivers in direct and indirect taxation. If obesity is such a burden on society then maybe it it about time that it is dealt with using this approach??
In the UK the number of obese people is growing daily - you see it in kids - isn't is about time that people in society: us. we, you and me started acting more responsibly about what we eat and how we exercise; We can't blame it on the manufacturers and purveyors of these products. Simple, we don't eat it, they don't make a profit, so they don't stock it! It works with everything else in the laws of supply and demand. Why can't it work with this ?