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Should television advertising of fast food / high sugar foods be permitted?

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Replies

  • wmd1979
    wmd1979 Posts: 469 Member
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    I feel like a lot of the responses are kind of knee jerk: I like fries, of course we sounds keep them around. There's some irony in that because the point many people saying no are making is that advertising has nothing to do with consumption, disallowing McDonald's ads on cartoons doesn't mean you can't still get and enjoy fries.

    Dismissing an idea out of hand is a lot easier than debating it on its merits.

    I don't think anyone is arguing that advertising has nothing to do with consumption, if it didn't then companies wouldn't pay as much as they do to advertise. What people are arguing(or what I am at least), is that advertising should not be blamed, or used as an excuse for an individuals lack of willpower. I may see a commercial for a whopper, and it may indeed make me hungry, but I also have a choice as to whether or not I will go consume one. I didn't get fit by completely abstaining from what other people might consider junk food. Quite the opposite actually, I still eat what I enjoy, but I do it in moderation. If I was to over indulge, then that's on me, and blaming advertisements would just be failing to take accountability for my own actions.
  • bathsheba_c
    bathsheba_c Posts: 1,873 Member
    The issue is that foods aren’t neatly divisible into “healthy” and “unhealthy.” So how are you going to legislate what gets banned? I made myself a lemonade today that has fewer calories and less sugar than the equivalent amount of milk, but I wouldn’t say it’s healthier than milk.

    As for the anti-bread folks, I tried eating less bread before I was counting calories in order to reduce carbs, and the only thing that happened as a result is that I was eating less protein and more fat instead.

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