Can Disney Fight Obesity by Banning Junk Food Ads?

ik! Disney Channel is just trying to help stop obesity! Like I've been saying, Disney is showing commericals on EATING HEALTHIER AND GOING OUTSIDE!!!!!

yes and again, yes.
children watch Disney avidly. it's one of the few cartoons on the air that is not a blatant, half-hour-long commercial for some product aimed at children.

and children can't discriminate between an advertisement and a program. or, for that matter, an advertisement and The Truth.
so, tell children this or that product is what they really want, that it will make them happy, whatever slant you want to put on it and they will believe you. advertising agencies know that if they push a cereal using a cartoon character kids will eat it up - - literally.

and now Disney is saying, "Enough!" and people ding them for it.
go figure.

None of the Disney channels that have branched out of the original Disney Channel don't show too many cartoons...at least not the classic ones from from the 1930s, 40s and 50s and no Mickey Mouse Club either.

I agree with about half of your comment. BUT, Disney's shows now are all about marketing. There are products to go with EVERY LAST SHOW. My kids and I played a game for a long time about the Hanna Montanna show. We tried to find a store that did NOT have HM merchandise. Even Lowes did. EVERY SINGLE STORE we went to did for over a year. It got to where even my kids recognised how many products were franchised off that one show and they would laugh and say "oh Mom, LOOK that is a HM flashlight" (that was the lowes one).

oh, well, you're probably right. I must admit I'm going on old data.
come to think of it, though, even in my day there were Mickey Mouse ears. if you didn't have a set your friends thought you were weird.

Walt Disney was a marketing genius!

Regardless of if the kids see the ads or not if the parents let jumk food into their home their children will eat it. It's the parent's responsibility.

That's right.

exactly liberals think this will work because they think parents can't raise kids but rather its up to corporations and gov't to do it! but people with brains know it sup to the parents not liberals to teach their kids!

now what in the world brought on that diatribe? are you feeling ok? maybe you should go lie down.

yes, it's parents RESPONSIBILITY. but the best of parents don't live up to their responsibilities 24/7 or even a majority of that. and the world is full of parents who are not the best parents.
for once, a corporation is acting responsibly and you manage to complain even about THAT.

go figure.

oh, and jfwiw - - this post isn't about politics or the political divide you seem intent upon perpetuating. really, it's not.

well disney had better get rid of all fast food and junk food fromt heir resorts and theme parks or they are complete hypocrites!

yes, it is the parent's responsibility - - but if you don't think the kids have a say in the decision, you don't have kids.

marketers know it very well. which is why products made for kids are high in sugar and are sold by cartoon characters.
if parents were the sole decision makers out in the real world, kids' products would all be healthy and the ads would be aimed at adults. they aren't either of those things for a very good reason: marketers know who is making the decisions.

it's a sad fact but denying it doesn't make it not true.

Parents are the SOLE decision makers whenever it comes to things like that. Kids can voice their opinion but it's all up to the parents. A parents can choose to not buy the food...Whenever you see a three year old that is obese, do you blame all the ads shown in commercials during Dora the Explorer or do you blame the parent that is feeding the child. Whether a child sees the ad of Chicken Express ,or whatever comes on, they can ask for it, pout about it, scream about it but only their parent has the purchasing power to get that food for them same with the Disney issue. It might have somewhat of an affect..but the only one who can actually do something is the parents themselves.

Unfortunately it's all up to the parents as to what their kids eat...not the child's. If it were up to the child that's watching Disney to pick their own food, it may...but that's just not the case. Parents will still buy all the junk food and put it in their children without a second thought.

While we are on the subject of junk food, I had over heard a segment of the TODAY SHOW five years ago that news correspodent reported that people from the baby boom generation, generation X and beyond that are not gonna live as long as their parents and grandparents from the World War II and Silent Generations. The reason for that is because during the Great Depression and WWII there wasn't that much food available for people to eat; people were out of work in the 30s and out fighting fighting a world war in the 40s. But after World War II there was so much prosperity in the country that so many things available had been for us including junk food. Junk food continued to rise during in the 50s, 60s and 70s. By the 70s the rising consumption of junk food had risen to such alarming heights that nutrtritionist and special interest tried to intervene to encourage parents to have their kids eat more nutritrtious and healthy foods.

you're absolutely right that it is UP TO the parents. and, in a perfect world, it would be. but this is not a perfect world. in the world we live in, most kids make many of the buying decisions. parents find it easiers to go along to get along so - - they do. that's just reality.

If not, then why are tobacco ads forbidden? Advertisers are smarter than most people -- especially the kiddos.

The ads should be free to be run, as it is the parent's job to choose and provide a balanced diet for their children. Parents can say NO to a child that wants junk food they say on TV.

Tv is not the problem. Its the parents giving it to them.

people make there own decision...

I'll be damned if they do.

They aren't forcing people to eat certain things, they just are refusing to promote foods that are unhealthy. No harm in that. It may be good for some kids that are unsupervised. But parents will have to follow suit to refrain from buying junk food if they want to see a real change in the eating habits of their kids.

I hate it when that happens to me also! ;-)

SodaHead needs to fix it so you're able to change it. If they want to continue to make changes to the site, change that.

I agree! That should be a part of the "edit" process!

Exactly. If you can edit your comments, you should be able to edit your vote.

Yes,that would be a logical approach! And a satisfactory solution!

a person can over-eat on good food also .... i speak from first-hand experience

that is true, its all about calorie intake vs calorie burnt in a day!

Disney's ultra popular "Mary Poppins" movie will need to be redone with the exclusion of the song, "A spoon full of Sugar". It might also be a good idea for them to drop the Winnie-the-Pooh brand with his notorious honey jar he keeps sticking his head into because doctors advise us to keep honey away from very small children due to a certain bacteria that is in honey.

Honey is much healthier than Burger King or McDonald's.

Not to a child under the age of 3... As rosebud stated... we are advised not to give to infants and toddlers... and I for one... don't like honey... in any form, lol

You shouldn't give McDonald's to a toddler either.Anyway,I don't think that 3 years old children don't actually go to fridge,still the honey jar and empty its content in their stomach.It's up to the parents how they feed their offsprings.

Exactly! Personal Responsibility! Personal Choice! But it's funny you say that about going to the fridge... my younger son, now 27 with 3 children of his own, at the age of two, went into the fridge, took out a cup of el pato (mexican tomato sauce) and turned it up... immediately emptied his stomach on my kitchen floor and while i was cleaning it up, went back to the fridge and tried again... kids will be kids...

Didn't you teach him a lesson?

lol, to this day, the boy loves hot food... so what was i suppose to teach? don't go into the fridge? don't bite off more than you can chew? don't drink something if you don't know what it is? we pick and choose our battles... he's obviously had no bad long lasting repercussions from drinking the pato sauce, lol... i mean... really... as a parent, we do the best we can... the rest is in God's capable hands!

So he might just eat fermented egg salad.

well, now that would be on him considering he's 27, lol

but who goes to lunch anywhere for a bowl of honey?!?!?!?