A friend of mine returned from the grocery store the other day and was shocked to see the bag of apples she had picked up were actually, Disney apples. Arrrgh! This frustrated my friend, who is not a big fan of Disney and is conscious of media influences on her kids’ lives. “I can’t even just grab a bag of apples?” she sighed. “I’m tired of having to think so hard about everything.”
In July of 2008, in response to growing concerns about childhood obesity and health, the FTC released a report about the marketing of foods to children and adolescents. One of the recommendations was that, “all companies that market food and beverage products to children should adopt and adhere to meaningful nutrition-based standards for marketing their products to children under 12.” http://www.ftc.gov/os/2008/07/P064504foodmktingreport.pdf
So now we have Disney apples, eggs and avocados. Some folks feel that at least it is better than McDonald’s Happy Meals, sugary snacks and junk food. I’m not so sure. I’m not happy about media-linked products aimed at children. Kids are just too vulnerable. It becomes a popularity contest in the cafeteria and another parent-child area of struggle. It is another way to create brand loyalty, infiltrate our lives and literally eat away at our creativity and independent thinking.
That is why I reminded my friend about Trader Joe’s http://www.traderjoes.com/index.html. Trader Joe’s is a chain of grocery stores that carries almost exclusively its own products (not General Mills or Kellog’s, etc…) From cereal, to yogurt, to snacks and more, you will NOT FIND media-linked food at Trader Joe’s. I go out of my way to shop there. My children read the packaging of our food, and I’m happy because they are reading the nutritional values, not an ad for the latest block-buster movie or television show. I’ve been a fan of Trader Joe’s for a long time because of the good prices and good products, but only after I had children did I truly appreciate the independent nature of this unique grocery store. If you have a Trader Joe’s in your area, I recommend it highly as an antidote to Dora the Explorer yogurt, Finding Nemo fruit snacks, Elmo juice boxes and High School Musical everything!
Right on Gerry!
You are right. I like Trader Joes, unfortunately it is far away. We also shop at the health food store and belong to a farm.
I never really had the commercial issue with the kids, because we don't have extended cable, so nobody really watches commercial TV.
We carpool for our trips to Trader Joe's, because it is a bit of a trek. You offer other good alternatives to big-chain grocery stores, thanks Rachel. We always try to hit the farmer's markets when we can!