Food Advertising

Food commercials have always struck a chord with me as being manipulative and deceitful. Growing up, I even was under the impression it was to be cool to be eating a Lunchable or eating Teddy Grahams. All my peers had the latest snack. I would see them being advertised right in the middle of my favorite cartoon or favorite show. If I had stayed home sick from school, I would notice that once my shows came on after all the grown-up talk shows in the morning, there would be more and more commercials for Fruit Roll-ups, or 3-D Doritos. They would even put my favorite cartoon character as one of the spokesman or on the packaging.

The only reason why I had noticed these things growing up, because all these snacks were the more expensive as opposed to the generic label which tasted exactly the same but with no favorite characters or special packaging. It was my mom and I growing up and let’s just say we didn’t have a giant surplus of money. It was considered a luxury to have Hot Pockets in the house or Kraft Mac & Cheese in the house. That Safeway brand box of mac n’cheese was just as good and for half the price, in the eyes of my mother.

I noticed that when I did have the occasional Lunchable at school, my friends would reference it. It always struck me as why they would point out I got the latest snack as opposed to my dinky sandwich that I had the day before. It made me realize that even at young age that popular snacks were just a gimmick and it was all geared towards kids. I’m thankful that I learned that at such a young age, but I’m sure I didn’t tell my mother that. I did want to be cool and have my Lunchable whenever I had the chance!

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