Media brainwashinging: Even carrots taste better at McDonald's, kids say

[TechBear_Seattle]

Even carrots taste better at McDonald's, kids say

CHICAGO -- Anything made by McDonald's tastes better, preschoolers said in a study that powerfully demonstrates how advertising can trick the taste buds of young children.

Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the children when they were wrapped in the familiar packaging of the Golden Arches.

The study had youngsters sample identical McDonald's foods in name-brand and unmarked wrappers. The unmarked foods always lost.

"You see a McDonald's label and kids start salivating," said Diane Levin, a childhood development specialist who campaigns against advertising to children. She had no role in the research.

The article continues in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/326632_diet07.html

[NaturalHigh]

1. Yeah, pretty screwed up.

Whenever I ask my son where he wants to eat, he inevitably says McDonald's.

[rpannier]

2. Start wrapping all your veggies in Mc Donald's freezer bags instead of ziploc

[hughee99]

3. Wow, advertising is effective on young children...

who would have thought.

In related news, Dr. Strasburger is preparing a new study to find out if people enjoy having sex. He plans to ask 63 sexually active teenagers if sex is something they enjoy doing.

Eventually, he's like to do a study on how easy it is to get grant money to do a study for something that is already common knowledge (perhaps a "is water wet" study), but he'll probably save that for the end of his career.

[slowry]

9. .

http://www.amazon.com/Comic-Toolbox-Funny-Even-Youre/dp/1879505215/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-6574321-7261643?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186499667&sr=8-1">.

[VLC]

4. McDonald's has carrots???

[noonwitch]

5. Fry anything in a vat of oil and it'll taste good

I remember when I was a kid, one of the frozen vegetable companies made these tv-dinner style veggies, called "I hate Carrots" or whatever vegetable (carrots, corn, and others). It was just deep-fried. My mom was disgusted with the whole concept.

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. You missed the point of the article, methinks

The only difference between the two sets of food is that one was in a McDonald's wrapper, the other was not. The food itself was identical.

The study was not about the desireability of junk food or healthy food, but about the desireability of a brand name.

[Javaman]

6. No surprising. Read Fast Food Nation. It explains it all nt

[The2ndWheel]

8. Wouldn't be a multi-billion dollar industry if it didn't work

Wouldn't be a global corporation if they didn't know what they were doing.