Commercialization of Food

At work today, as I was unloading the truck that comes twice a week to restock the store, I was struck by the fact that twenty-four of the items on that we received were cases of happy-meal toys and the correspondingly themed happy-meal boxes. Usually we receive maybe two to four cases of toys, and several packages of generic happy-meal bags. However, In the interest of making more money for everyone (and by everyone I mean our parent companies), it is deemed necessary that we lavish ourselves in Kung-Foo Panda decor and provide hundreds of toys and themed product packaging.

McDonald's isn't a toy store, it's a junk food chain, that serves pretty tasty food pretty fast for a pretty good price. Not content with filling that niche, they make deals with the entertainment industry so that children, excited about an upcoming movie, will want all the toys that come with fast food. It's great advertising for both sides, as anyone visiting a McDonald's during a children's film release will be bombarded by advertisements and merchandise for the film.

I don't really have a big problem with this, but it strikes me as kind of sad that it works so well. That children are so enthralled by junk food and whatever the newest animated film to hit theaters is. There is nothing wrong with child happily playing with a new toy, or they way their face lights up to see an exciting movie, but I feel that the pace of this pop culture bombardment encourages children to jump blindly to the next toy or film. It's hard to put my finger on it, it's just something in my gut telling me that what is happening is more like shoving toys and food and movies at children, rather than making a gift of it. It's like how getting an invite to a free trial of something is kind of cool, but when your inbox is overflowing with invites to every possible crap, what is a gift in moderation becomes spam. I feel like the media is shouting "And now for a limited time only!: You can have more fun, all you have to do is drop what you're doing and pay just a little more money! This is one decision you WON'T regret!"

Like I said, It's not really something I'm angry about, responsible people will survive this (we survived telemarketers, after all), it's just something I noticed.

thought for tomorrow: I can't believe Speed Racer tanked, it was one of my favorite films to come out in the last few years.