Shrek Junk Food Fairy Tale
 
Fairy Tales Do Come True. It Can Happen to You…If You’re a Gullible Consumer… You have to hand it to companies like Unilever. With Dove, they get the glory of telling us “You’re beautiful just the way you are…” and still hocking anti-cellulite and fake tanning creams. With that product line, what exactly does “Campaign for Real Beauty” mean? We now have Unilever’s Suave Shampoo campaign pandering to the “pretty mommy” in all of us. Look, I’m all for the Yummy Mummies movement. But Suave wants us to believe that they’re a mommy’s best friend. They have an entire web site dedicated to proving it—even an icon of a breast-feeding mother. And it’s great to see imagery of nursing women. Women should nurse. Regardless of the CDC, WHO and Harvard not always agreeing on whether or not a year of nursing can offset 40 years of junk food isn’t really the point. We all know that the first act of putting your child’s health first is to breast-feed. So what does Suave, the pro-breast-feeding company, do in their new TV commercial? Show us a lovely nursing mother…with the message that breast-feeding leaves both your hair and breasts…flat. News to Unilever/Suave: That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for nursing. You’ve likely scared off an entire future generation of breast-feeding mommies. Look next to SHREK. He’s a good ogre with funny movies. This summer, we get Shrek the Third as the next installment. So as clever marketers do, DreamWorks has Shrek pitching 70+ junk food items including Pop-Tarts, M&Ms, Happy Meals, etc. No surprise, right? But poor Shrek is schizoid. Not only does he peddle junk food, he’s also the poster boy for the Health & Human Services and AdCouncil’s new campaign to curb child obesity. Wha…? Shrek wants kids to get out and play. “Get up and play!” is his slogan. None of us will argue that every child in this country could use some exercise. They’re supposed to get at least an hour a day. But do you find it suspicious that those funding this Shrek “Get Out and Play” campaign are none other than Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonald’s, Hersheys, Kraft, Cartoon Network…Oh, you know the rest… So the junk food companies have wised-up and decided that if they point fingers to exercise, American consumers are gullible enough to excuse junk food companies from their role in childhood obesity. Let’s see…1 foil of Pop-Tarts is 400 Calories. That has my child jogging 3 miles with Shrek or playing on the playground with him for 3 hours. No amount of exercise, recess, PE—or monkey bar time with Shrek—is going to offset a child’s daily deluge of junk food—regardless of what fairy tale these marketers push this summer. But they do have one thing right. No matter how much Shrek “plays” all that junk food has left him with bad skin, bad teeth, chronic gas…and an obese body. MeMe Roth President National Action Against Obesity For More Information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qDgUuNagls http://www.brandweek.com/bw/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003574725 And this from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/14/eveningnews/main2802643.shtml?source=RSSattr=CBSEveningNews_2802643 CCFC's campaign to fire Shrek from his role as a spokescharacter for healthy living continues to shine a spotlight on the food industry's tactics and Health and Human Service's hypocrisy. The campaign has been featured in media reports around the country and inspired this commentary by Stephen Colbert.  A review by CCFC found sixteen separate food promotions for upcoming movie Shrek the Third featuring more than seventy different products, including  Kellogg's Marshmallow Froot Loops cereal, Keebler E.L. FudgeDouble Stuffed cookies, "ogre-sized" Peanut Butter M&M's, Cheetos, and Kellogg's Frosted S'Mores Pop Tarts. If you haven't yet done so, please tell Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt to stop partnering with the poster ogre for junk food marketing - and start getting serious about combating childhood obesity by advocating for policies that protect children from commercial exploitation. Thanks,  The Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood
http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qDgUuNaglshttp://www.brandweek.com/bw/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003574725http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=346121007&url_num=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbsnews.com%2Fstories%2F2007%2F05%2F14%2Feveningnews%2Fmain2802643.shtml%3Fsource%3DRSSattr%3DCBSEveningNews_2802643http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=346121007&url_num=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.comedycentral.com%2Fmotherload%2Findex.jhtml%3Fml_video%3D86006http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=346121007&url_num=3&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.democracyinaction.org%2Fdia%2ForganizationsORG%2Fccfc%2Fcampaign.jsp%3Fcampaign_KEY%3D11168%26amp%3Bt%3DSansSignupBox.dwthttp://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=346121007&url_num=4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.commercialfreechildhood.org%2Fshapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1shapeimage_1_link_2shapeimage_1_link_3shapeimage_1_link_4shapeimage_1_link_5
Monday, April 30, 2007
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“Let’s finally recognize obesity as abuse—abuse of our children, abuse of ourselves—and together take action against it.”
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National Action Against Obesity
- MeMe Roth