The Fat Diaries: Selling Junk Food to Mom
Manufacturers may have to stop peddling their junk food to kids but money-conscious parents are apparently still fair game.
Whenever I go grocery shopping, I forget everything. I forget to bring in the plastic bags to recycle. I forget to bring the cloth bags (so I don’t have an even BIGGER pile of plastic bags to recycle). I forget to clip coupons, and check the sales. In 3 out of 4 trips I forget my shopping list. Let’s face it. Grocery shopping is not for people like me, with the memory of a stunned duckling and the attention span of a toaster.
So this week I was making an urgent run for some of life’s essentials (like milk, coffee, more coffee and yet again more coffee in case I burn through the first two too quickly). I was about halfway through when I remembered to check the front of the store for the gas station rewards points list. My local chain of choice runs weekly promotions where if you purchase selected items you get points you can redeem when purchasing gas. Most are items you’d usually find in a house: cola, breakfast sausages, coffee, toothpaste, that sort of thing.
When I tore off the list and examined the items listed I actually fought back my impulse to scream like the Hulk in the middle of the store. Almost every single item worth points was junk food. There was a large selection of frozen treats like ice cream bars and popsicles. There were sugary cereals, brownie mixes, pound cake, ranch dressing, cookies. And (here’s the real groaner) an ENTIRE SECTION of the list was dedicated to a certain chocolate company’s products. Yep. All candy. There WAS a section that was lacking in junk food (except for margarita mix) but it was designer bottled water, pet food, diapers and barbeque supplies.
I couldn’t believe it! This entire list was made of products I’ve decided not to keep in my house. Sure, ice cream is seasonal, but who would stock up 6 boxes of it in order to get points off of gasoline?! And that was really my choice here. Pay full price for gas, or restart some of my old eating habits (and let my kids start some bad ones as well).
It’s kind of a cruel reminder that no matter what laws are made against advertising, placement, mascots or other methods, in the end the corporations will still find ways to try to get their food into your pantry. And it will never stop. With the new law proposals about banning ads for junk food targeted to kids, we have to ask ourselves: who calls the shots? Is it the same green-checkmark guys who gave a seal of approval to Froot Loops and Baked Lays? ‘Cause if so, than we’re on our own again. And they don’t have to sell to your kids.
None of these junk foods were dangled enticingly in front of kids saying, “sugary fun for cool kids!” No, this carrot was dangled in front of mom and dad this time, saying, “Gas prices are only going to go up. Just get junky cereal instead of healthy cereal this week, and you can spend $10 less at the pump!”
Pretty effective. Well, I was proud of myself for walking out of the store without a cart full of ice cream, cake, and chocolate. I didn’t have much choice, really. I’m going to pay full-price at the pump this week, but it wasn’t worth the price of letting myself fall into bad eating habits again… Which was just as well since the receipt printer was out of paper and would have eaten my gas points anyway.
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