All the healthy eating in the world apparently can't undo the power of branding, even to a preschooler. A new study of 3- and 5-year olds showed that kids overwhelmingly preferred the food in the McDonald's wrapper to its identical twin in the generic wrapper. I think I'm going to be sick now.
"This study demonstrates simply and elegantly that advertising
literally brainwashes young children into a baseless preference for
certain food products ... Children, it seems, literally do judge a food by its cover. And they
prefer the cover they know."
Does this tell us anything we don't already know? Advertising works. That's why they do it. McDonald's rots the brain even when you don't eat it. Of course, most of the kids in the study admitted to eating McDonald's "food" (I'll use the term loosely) more than once a week, and most had McDonald's toys at home. So they are quite familiar with the golden arches.
I'm guessing though that even kids like mine who eat mostly at home and don't see much TV have, by osmosis, the same branding preferences as the kids in the study. It's pervasive and inescapable. I think we'll be doing a little experiment soon to find out.
