Remember how I posted about the absurd marketing aimed at parents? Well, I have a specific example that I'm going to rant about today. A certain juice company has started making (and vigorously marketing) "Brain Development" and "Immunity" versions of their juice. That's right, one more way to guilt parents into spending money unnecessarily. If you don't give your child this special juice it will be all your fault if they get sick or don't get straight As. How dare you stand in their way of maximizing their potential for a few measly dollars?
The kicker in this is that these days pediatricians don't recommend giving kids juice or, if you do, seriously restricting it and diluting it with equal parts water. Basically it has way too much sugar for the little bits of nutrition. Do you think these new juice lines are the juice companies feeling the effects of this new recommendation and trying to counter pediatricians' advice? Or am I just overly cynical?
First off, you are reading into things completely correctly, if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is that parents make choices - some choose to give juice, and some do not. I think they are marketing at the parents who DO give juice that if you're going to do it, pick ours because of these benefits. We tend to buy stuff that has those labels for ourselves, so why would we not for our little ones.
They are also marketing to parents of all children, which is something I have to catch myself on all the time too. A "Kids Meal" at Silver Diner is designed for everyone from Abby to a 12 year old. I've stopped being shocked at the size of dishes and embraced leftovers again!