If I recall correctly, they were forced. There’s an obesity pandemic going on in children, mostly driven by excessive use of sugars and overconsumption of fast food and sodas. So, there were certain regulations limiting how directed at children the marketing could be. They can still charge exorbitant prices to children, their parents are the ones paying anyways.
Morgan Spurlock seriously manipulated the experiment to get the results he wanted, like completely stopping his regular exercise regimen while drinking massive amounts of alcohol. A cursory look at the numbers shows that he couldn’t possibly have gained 25 pounds on the diet he claimed he ate. I despise McDonald’s and they deserve all the negative attention, but Spurlock was a grifter and charlatan.
Ah, I was more referring to how the documentary was very critical of marketing to children, and how people campaigned against that in the years surrounding that.
I didn’t know about his alcoholism, thanks for bringing that to my attention. That said, eating waaay too much fast food and not exercising was pretty much the whole point - he wanted to show how bad that lifestyle was. IMO the only problem there is that he failed to disclose that he was also heavily drinking.
Fully agreed on the marketing to children. And I think the established and emerging research around the effects of junk food really show the ill effects of our industrialized food supply. See: “The Dorito Effect” by Mark Schatzker; “Sugar” and “Hacking of the American Mind” by Robert Lustig; Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes. Basically, if it wasn’t raw when you bought it, that food is most likely bad for you.
Spurlock didn’t “fail to disclose” his food lists; he steadfastly refused to disclose what he consumed because it would show him, most generously speaking, to be Captain Obvious and at worst to be full of shit.
If I recall correctly, they were forced. There’s an obesity pandemic going on in children, mostly driven by excessive use of sugars and overconsumption of fast food and sodas. So, there were certain regulations limiting how directed at children the marketing could be. They can still charge exorbitant prices to children, their parents are the ones paying anyways.
Exactly. Nobody in this thread remembers Super Size Me?
Morgan Spurlock seriously manipulated the experiment to get the results he wanted, like completely stopping his regular exercise regimen while drinking massive amounts of alcohol. A cursory look at the numbers shows that he couldn’t possibly have gained 25 pounds on the diet he claimed he ate. I despise McDonald’s and they deserve all the negative attention, but Spurlock was a grifter and charlatan.
Ah, I was more referring to how the documentary was very critical of marketing to children, and how people campaigned against that in the years surrounding that.
I didn’t know about his alcoholism, thanks for bringing that to my attention. That said, eating waaay too much fast food and not exercising was pretty much the whole point - he wanted to show how bad that lifestyle was. IMO the only problem there is that he failed to disclose that he was also heavily drinking.
Fully agreed on the marketing to children. And I think the established and emerging research around the effects of junk food really show the ill effects of our industrialized food supply. See: “The Dorito Effect” by Mark Schatzker; “Sugar” and “Hacking of the American Mind” by Robert Lustig; Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes. Basically, if it wasn’t raw when you bought it, that food is most likely bad for you.
Spurlock didn’t “fail to disclose” his food lists; he steadfastly refused to disclose what he consumed because it would show him, most generously speaking, to be Captain Obvious and at worst to be full of shit.
FWIW, that downvote wasn’t me.