Common sense is a rare commodity on the social web. Yet, as hard as it might be to find common sense in 2.0-ville, I did stumble upon some recently. That rare commodity appeared in a BNET.com article written by Carol Tice and entitled “Note to Activists: Food Makes Kids Fat, Not Advertising.” This bit of insight was caught by my Google Alerts settings which I had created after my interest was piqued in a particular anti-corporate campaign.

Regarding that anti-corporate campaign, I wrote about it last week when I posted “Who Is Really the Prey in Predatory Marketing?.” That post is about how the irregular competitor Corporate Accountability International (CAI) is conducting a campaign against Mc Donald’s, alleging that the burger-maker uses predatory marketing and unfair advertising in promoting its Happy Meal product. And just how is Mc Donald’s alleged to perform such predatory and unfair acts? By using free toys as an incentive to buy the food.

The BNET.com article recalls this CAI campaign against Mc Donald’s and also discusses how some governmental jurisdictions, specifically the City of San Diego and the County of Santa Clara (CA), are attempting to pass ordinances which would ban the inclusion of toys with fast food meals.  The BNET.com article also mentions that CAI wants Mc Donald’s to discontinue the usage of Ronald Mc Donald as a corporate icon. (An icon that is, by the way, also used by a group of cancer patient support facilities around the country.) The reason that the irregular competitor wants Ronald deep-sixed is that CAI claims that Ronald is:

. . . too alluring to tots, encouraging them to nag their parents into taking them to the fast-food leader’s restaurants.

And of course, we all know that parents always do whatever their children nag them to do, whenever they nag them. So, certainly Ronald Mc Donald must therefore be the culprit here. After that bit of sarcasm, you probably know where I’m heading now. Yes. This is where that “pesky” common sense comes into play. After the above quote in the BNET.com, the article’s author says:

At the risk of stating the obvious, advertising is calorie-free. Fattening food makes children gain weight.

And who makes the final decision to put the fattening food in the kids’ mouths? Not the kids, but rather, as I referred to them in my “Who Is Really the Prey . . . ” article, their “co-opted proxies.” Co-opted proxies? Yes, in our modern society that means the parents.

In my opinion, fattening food, a lack of exercise, and parents’ inability or unwillingness to enforce a healthy discipline are more directly contributory causes to making kids fat than are the toys that come with fast food. I’m not backing up my opinion with a research study, rather I’m going to support it with a common sense observation. Let me go look out my window.

I am writing today’s article from my home, and as I look out onto my street,

Continue reading Who's the Culprit? Advertising? Or Parents?