Fighting Obesity in the Courts
Super-Size Me
Legal Issues 101
Fighting Obesity in the Courts
The 'obesity epidemic' has garnered much attention by the news media and western governments over the past decade. Their concern is well founded, because there has been a three-fold increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States since 1980 (reviewed by Gleason and Dodd S118). According to the results of a survey conducted in 2009 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approximately 12.0% and 15.8% of all school-aged children were judged to be either obese or overweight, respectively ("Surveillance Summaries, 28). That's close to 30% of all K-12 students in the United States having a weight problem. Should a weight problem become entrenched in that child's life, their academic performance will suffer and they are at an increased risk for developing significant mental and physical health problems as adults (reviewed by Gleason and Dodd S118). The future costs of this epidemic to western societies could be staggering.
Many theories have been proposed to explain the epidemic rise in overweight school children, including a sedentary lifestyle due to television watching and electronics gaming, too much sugar and saturated fats, aggressive marketing of junk food to children, a lack food labeling guidelines that help children and adults make informed dietary choices, oversized portions, and the absence of a nutritional education (CDC "Overweight and Obesity"). Parents and children alike are thus faced with a culture that seems to encourage childhood obesity, so it should come as no surprise that some parents and their attorneys are fighting back through lawsuits alleging fast food restaurants, like McDonalds, have engaged in misleading and false marketing practices that contribute directly to the childhood obesity problem.
2. Suing "Big Food"
The attacks against fast food restaurants have in part been modeled on how attorneys and state's attorney generals went after Big Tobacco...
Obesity rates were 5% higher among the ninth graders whose schools were within one-tenth of a mile of a pizza, burger or other popular fast-food outlet, compared with students attending schools farther away from fast-food stores" (Rabin 2009). This indicates that proximity increases weight over time -- again, incrementally, through exposure, not necessarily in a self-imposed binge. By using a wide range of test subjects, the reliability of the results has
Supersize Me, Morgan Spurlock undergoes one of the most masochistic eating experiments imaginable, eating only McDonald's food for thirty days. He tracks his mental and physical health throughout the experiment to reveal the drastic ill effects of regular fast food consumption. Both his girlfriend and his doctors are appalled at the rapid changes taking place in Spurlock, not just to his body but to his emotional and sex life
Fast food: Placing the blame In Morgan Spurlock's documentary Supersize Me, the fast food corporation of McDonald's is portrayed as making food that is particularly damaging to human health. On a month-long diet of McDonald's cuisine, Spurlock's weight balloons and his health rapidly deteriorates. Of course, he consistently consumed more calories than he burned, even when not feeling hungry. He also reduced his activity level. But while Spurlock's one-man experiment
Marketing Channels and Methods -- the New Svelte Shape of McDonald's Objectives & Mission Statement Although McDonald's latest advertising slogan, as proclaimed on its 2005 website, is "I'm lovin' it," (McDonald's Official Website, 2005), shareholders in the fast food company have not be equally enamored of its current stock performance and plummeting sales. (The Rogue Investor, 2005) Thus, the objectives of the new McDonald's marketing campaign must be to undo some of
" A study asked the public which attributes were the most important for a fast-food chain; among the respondents, cleanliness ranked first, followed by the wish to have hot food actually served hot. "The idea that fast food should be juicy (not dried out) placed eleventh on the list" (Gershman, 1990, p. 176). According to this author, Wendy's took two of its product attributes, hot and juicy, and based their
The film's promotions played upon a common element of human psychology, namely concern about public health and body image. Much like films like "Bridget Jones Diary" and "Raging Bull," it made use of a highly publicized, real-life weight gain upon the part of its protagonist and director, using verisimilitude and relevant shock value to publicize the film. The director used his own alleged physical deterioration to draw in viewers,
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