On Food Marketing

Food companies spend billions of dollars every year to convince us that their product is better than the next guy. Coke is better than Pepsi, McDonalds is better than Burger King. The end result of this campaign of confusion is that people make decisions based on catchy jingles or special effects filled commercials rather than what the product truly is.

If Coca Cola advertised their product as caramel colored sugar water, do you think the psychological effect would be as substantial as millions of dollars spent on creating an animated commercial staring a warm lovable polar bear cub sharing a Coke with a baby penguin? Of course not! Coca Cola created this image to evoke feelings of camaraderie where even mortal enemies can put their differences aside and enjoy a nice cold Coke.

Or how about McDonalds? Would they have much economic success if they made commercials staring anyone of the 54% of obese Americans shoveling yet another double cheese burger into their mouth as they slurp down a nice cold caramel flavored sugar water drink while they use greasy salt covered fingers to cram more French fries into an already full belly?

Wake up people!!! These commercials are designed to hide the true nature of the products we thoughtlessly consume on a daily basis which are slowly but surely destroying our bodies, health care system and our children’s future. Of course, food companies defend themselves by saying they are simply making products that people want. In reality they are doing everything in their power to convince you that you want what they are making. To do this, food companies employ armies of marketing professionals and Dr’s of Psychology in order to create fancy marketing campaigns with statistically high levels of success.

I can’t blame food companies for their clever money-making schemes. However, I can blame each and every person who refuses to see past these gimmicks and allows their body be poisoned slowly but surely by unhealthy food engineered to keep you coming back for more.

As a free market capitalist, maybe I should invent the healthy whole-grain Twinkie infused with powerful antioxidants or the 100% natural Ding Dong with real Acai berry filling. If people are going to continue to be duped into eating garbage, I might as well make a few bucks off it.