Abstract This paper examines several corporate marketing campaigns and their potential impact on childhood obesity. The paper first describes factors contributing to childhood obesity, and then considers the role of fast-food in this problem. The writer also presents some recent dissolutions of corporate partnerships, such as that between McDonalds and Disney, because of issues of children's nutrition. The paper also details plans by McDonalds to encourage healthy eating for children.
From the Paper "Children are highly impressionable consumers. "Children see 40,000 advertisements a year on television alone" (Gavin, 2005.) Marketing food toward children is by no means solely done via the fast food industry and processed food producers believe that children represent the largest untapped market for the purchase of their products. As a result, more and more advertisers are focusing food commercials on children, who have difficulty discerning reality from what they see on television. The numbers are clear - children aged 5-13 represent 36.8 million consumers in the United States and can influence a total of $100 billion in food spending by adults. Parents are much more likely these days to listen to the child's opinion regarding food purchases, and advertisers see that market as wide open (McCue, 1996). It may be that the shake up between McDonalds and Disney is simply a way to approach the market from a new angle. "
