Photo credit: John Henry Mostyn/Flickr
“It’s no fun being a kid when you’re fat.”
“It’s hard being a little girl when you’re not.”
This is the rhetoric used by the Strong4Life Obesity Campaign recently launched in Georgia. According an ABC news article, the campaign uses negative portrayals of obese children to “scare” parents into awareness about the issue.
Take a look at these two pictures-what do you think they are?
Credit: AchillesEffect
Credit: AchillesEffect
It has become evident that champions of healthy eating are no longer emphasizing teaching proper eating habits: they are getting aggressive and seeking to eliminate many of the harms that plague Americans’ diets before they are even offered for consumption.
My first interaction with this elimination tactic was at my public high school in South Dakota. This is a brutal paraphrasing of what happened, but a mother was concerned that her child had gained weight despite healthy eating habits at home. Therefore, the mother blamed the school, where her child could buy soda and snacks in the vending machines and in the school store. After a tumultuous battle with the school district, the mother’s efforts were successful and no longer could you find ‘unhealthy’ food in school. Gone were the days of buying candy in the school store; gone were the days of purchasing regular chips – not Sun Chips or Chex Mix – with your lunch; and gone were the days of having a soda to get you through that afternoon sleepiness. Instead, we were presented with trail mix, Chex Mix, and sugary sports drinks as our ‘healthy options.’ It’s a far cry to call these alternatives healthy; healthier than before, but still, not truly good for you.
Photo Credit: Wrote via Flikr
It seems the latest group targeted by cosmetic marketers is… pre-tween girls. Just when you were starting to get used to the idea that such a term as “tween” exists (that would classify girls aged 9 – 12), there is now a new category brand of consumers, individuals who are so young the best label the marketing world could come up with for them was “pre-tween.” This month, Wal-Mart is launching its beauty cosmetics line GeoGirl targeting girls aged six to ten. The line includes blush, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara and lip gloss, and, according to Wal-Mart representatives aims to teach young girls how to maintain beauty care in an environmentally responsible way.
photo credit: Coreena_C via photobucket
On the way to class last week, I stopped to buy an iced coffee. I drank most of it immediately but left some for later so I could get one more caffeine blast before my next class. I took a drink of my hour-old coffee and found it unpleasantly diluted, sour, and room temperature. I was kind of annoyed at myself; I know that coffee loses its piquancy as it sits, and ice melts. There was not really anything else I could have done to prevent this unpalatable experience. According to business owner Michael Dozois, however, his product could remedy this situation.