Even as one in six Americans is food insecure, diet-related illness are skyrocketing. Today’s kids are expected to be the first generation to have a shorter lifespan than their parents, and preventable diet-related disease is fast becoming the top source of healthcare spending.
For the health of our economy, health care system, and the future of the nation, it’s critical that kids develop healthy eating habits. But as parents, caregivers and school food directors know all too well, that’s easier said than done. Why? In part, it turns out, because getting kids to eat healthy isn’t a fair fight. Food corporations pour nearly $2 billion into marketing junk food to kids every year! Can humble broccoli or non-artificially-colored carrots stand a chance against those ad dollars?
Join us for a live Google+ Hangout on food marketing to kids and learn how to fight back on Friday, November 22nd 12:00-12:40 PST | 3:00-3:40 EST
RSVP and join us here to watch the live chat!
Isn’t it up to parents to steer kids clear of the influence of these ads? Yes, of course! But it’s not that simple. Turning off the TV won’t cut it these days. Promoting food high in salt, sugar and fat, these ads are everywhere – and especially online. Six billion ads for fast food appeared on Facebook alone in 2012. Marketing to kids on school buses, through text messages, even on report cards – is now common for fast food corporations who lean on plenty of help from well-loved friends: Dora, Shrek and the infamous Ronald, to name a few.
One in three kids eat fast food every day. The likelihood that African-American and Latina girls born in the U.S. will develop diabetes? One in two. These numbers are stark. Yet fast food restaurants continue to target black and hispanic youth, who are already at higher risk for obesity and other illnesses.
Join us for a live Google+ Hangout on food marketing to kids and learn how to fight back, with Food MythBusters director Anna Lappé and Michele Simon, public health lawyer and president of Eat Drink Politics.
To watch the live chat, join us here! And submit your questions here.
Friday, November 22nd 12:00-12:40 PST | 3:00-3:40 EST
