{"id":7483,"date":"2005-02-23T10:08:25","date_gmt":"2005-02-23T17:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/02\/23\/just-say-no.html"},"modified":"2005-02-23T10:08:25","modified_gmt":"2005-02-23T17:08:25","slug":"just_say_no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/02\/23\/just_say_no.html","title":{"rendered":"Just say No"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gads! British (and, doubtless, American) parents are helpless before the Evils of Cereal Cartoon Characters!<\/a> Gads!<\/p>\n

A crackdown on the use of children’s cartoon characters to market food products is needed, says a watchdog.<\/p>\n

A survey by Which? found 77% of 2,000 people believed using characters like Shrek and Scooby Doo on packs made it hard for parents to say no to children.<\/p>\n

Many products are high in fat, salt and sugar, making the use of the characters irresponsible, it says.<\/p>\n

Which of these solutions to the problem seems the best to you?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Require all Evil Cereal to be packaged in plain brown boxes with names like “Evil Cereal That Doesn’t Taste Good.”\n
  2. Ban all food that is high in fat, salt, and\/or sugar, or is not made in an environmentally friendly fashion, or is not manufactured by people getting a living wage, or does not meet whatever other criteria folks think is Good and Virtuous on a given day.<\/p>\n
  3. Teach parents how to say “No” to their kids, fergoshsakes.<\/ol>\n

    Well, we certainly can’t rely on “C,” since parents are helpless, helpless <\/em>I tell you, in the face of an unholy alliance between Media Moguls and Food Magnates. So the watchdog groups and the British government are looking at various combinations of “A” and “B.” I’m sure folks on this side of the pond are taking notes.<\/p>\n

    While the parents acknowledged that they had a responsibility themselves to make sure their children eat healthily, many said they felt powerless against advertising ploys.<\/p>\n

    Nick Stace of Which? said: “Parents feel manipulated by these marketing practices.<\/p>\n

    “Too many characters loved by children are being used to promote foods high in fat, sugar and salt, leaving parents feeling powerless to say no.”<\/p>\n

    Here’s how to say it. “No.” <\/p>\n

    Or, perhaps, “No!” <\/p>\n

    Or even, maybe, “No, and if you ask for it again, I’m going to buy Shredded Wheat and you can frelling eat it or go hungry. End of Discussion.”<\/p>\n

    Or, perhaps, you can take a slightly less draconian tone, and point out some other cereals, or negotiate different “treats,” or whatever. But, frankly, parents, if you feel “powerless” in the face of cereal boxes that have beloved cartoon characters on them, I hate to see what your Christmas gift credit card bill looks like.<\/p>\n

    Growing up, while there were periods where we had “sweet” cereal (Captian Crunch, Qwisp, Frosted Flakes, Sugar Smacks), most of our childhood consisted of Chex and Cheerios (albeit with access to the sugar bowl). Other stuff was “camping cereal,” a special treat for on vacations, and only then.<\/p>\n

    It’s the same with Katherine. Yes, she’s attracted to the cereal with [fill in character’s name here] on the box, but we simply don’t buy it. We explain it’s a special treat for vacations, or we simply move along. If she pitches a fit, we address the improper behavior, not reward it by giving in.<\/p>\n

    Sheesh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Gads! British (and, doubtless, American) parents are helpless before the Evils of Cereal Cartoon Characters! Gads! A crackdown on the use of children’s cartoon characters to market food products is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-drink","category-parenting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16811,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/02\/25\/katherines-science-fair-project.html","url_meta":{"origin":7483,"position":0},"title":"Katherine’s Science Fair project","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 25-Feb-10 8:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Kay's experiment for her school Science Fair was to test whether people accurately gauge how much sugar is in cereal -- particular \"adult\" cereal vs. \"kid\" cereal. 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