Commercialism

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Sugar Shock!: How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life-- and How YouCan Get Back on Track Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C. with Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

The Fast Food Trap: How commercialism Creates Overweight Children." October 31, 2003. http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/education/junk-food/the-fast-food-trap-how-commercialismcreates-overweight-children. Ruskin, Gary, and Juliet Schor. "Every Nook and Cranny: The Dangerous Spread of Commercialized Culture." http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/mm2005/012005/ruskin.html. Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Perennial, 2002. Schoonover, Heather, and Mark Muller. "Food without Policy: How U.S. Farm Policy Contributes to Obesity.

Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back Michele Simon See book keywords and concepts

But with children—no less than with adults—honing in on a symptom like obesity runs the risk of distracting us from other, bigger-picture problems, such as the excessive commercialism and exploitative marketing practices to which kids are now routinely exposed. In her book Born to Buy, Boston College sociology professor Juliet Schor demonstrates how our contemporary "junk culture" impacts children's overall well-being. Kids exposed to high levels of commercialism, she notes, tend to be more depressed and anxious, and suffer from lower self-esteem, headaches, stomachaches, and boredom.

Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs Melody Petersen See book keywords and concepts

Among the novel's characters was Professor Max Gottlieb, an immunologist who criticizes the blatant commercialism of the pharmaceutical firms. Soon, however, Professor Gottlieb is forced for financial reasons to join the fictional drug company Dawson T. Hunziker and Co., Inc. Other scientists lament the professor's defection. "How could old Max have gone over to that damned pill-peddler?" a group of researchers wail. "Of all the people in the world!" remarks a young physician. "I wouldn't have believed it! Max Gottlieb falling for those crooks! ... I wish he hadn't gone wrong!

Sugar Shock!: How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life-- and How YouCan Get Back on Track Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C. with Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Another big player is Commercial Alert, which seeks to keep commercialism from "exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity, and democracy. " The Battle to Ban Soda and Other Junk Food from Our Schools The situation that most infuriates health and family groups across the political spectrum is that corporations sell their processed, often sugary snacks or sugary beverages on school grounds. Consumer advocate and social critic Ralph Nader describes this ploy as "relentless marketing to the youth that bypasses parents.

Alternative Medicine?: A History Roberta Bivins See book keywords and concepts

Perhaps in part because of our perceptions of such medical inefficacy, the eighteenth century has been frequently described as the Golden Age of quackery; certainly, it saw a great flowering of medical commercialism and ingenuity, and luxuriant growth in the medical marketplace. What it did not possess in any great measure were any identifiable alternative medicines 'because there was no defined medical establishment against which they could react'.

If It's Not Food, Don't Eat It! The No-nonsense Guide to an Eating-for-Health Lifestyle Kelly Harford, M.C., C.N.C. See book keywords and concepts

There are a growing number of parents who are aware of this phenomenon as well, and shield their children from mind-altering commercialism by only allowing their children to watch non-commercial public television. Some might consider this extreme, but it's important to remember that the marketing tactics children are being bombarded with are even more extreme. While you may not want to impose such a restriction forever, it is a wise thing to do at least until you have had some time to do some of your own indoctrination, and children are old enough to understand more on an intellectual level.

Toxic Childhood: How the Modern World is Damaging Our Children and What We Can Do About it Sue Palmer See book keywords and concepts

But as Susan Linn says, 'Comparing the advertisements of three decades ago to the commercialism that permeates our children's world is like comparing a BB gun to a smart bomb ... the explosion of marketing aimed at children today is precisely targeted, refined by scientific method and honed by child psychologists - in short, it is more pervasive and intrusive than ever.' Children as customers There are several reasons for marketeers' change of pitch. The first is that contemporary childreji have increasing amounts of money to spend, and increasing access to their parents' disposable income.

Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back Michele Simon See book keywords and concepts

Commercial Alert Works to minimize the impact of commercialism, especially on children's health. www.commercialalert.org Community Food Security Coalition A coalition of groups that address the lack of fresh, affordable, and sustainable healthy food in low-income communities by improving food systems. www. foodsecuri ty. org The Food Studies Institute Improving children's diets through an innovative and award-winning curriculum that engages kids in sensory-based, hands-on learning. www.foodstudies.

Alarmed at the ADA's decision to enter into an unholy alliance with a candy and soda giant, I shared the news with my colleagues at the nonprofit group Commercial Alert (which works to protect children and society at large from the excesses of commercialism), triggering an interesting chain of events. First, Commercial Alert's executive director Gary Ruskin promptly issued a press release that included this pithy observation: Maybe the American Diabetes Association should rename itself the American Junk Food Association. What will it do for an encore? Start selling candy bars for M&M/Mars?

If we only narrowly confine the issue to the use of cartoon characters (and other child-friendly practices) to market junk food, we miss the potential harm caused by commercialism more generally.47 Another reason it's important to avoid speaking about "marketing healthy foods to kids" is that it plays right into the hands of industry.

Stop the Insanity If we care about children's overall well-being, do we really want to perpetuate rampant commercialism aimed at kids by calling for more characters to promote eating the right kinds of foods, when natural hunger signals, the pleasure of eating, and role modeling should suffice? In other words, the same motivations that drive (or should) adult healthy eating behavior. It may sound petty to argue that the solution does not lie in using cartoon characters on healthy foods. Indeed, there is a split among advocates on this issue.

Kids exposed to high levels of commercialism, she notes, tend to be more depressed and anxious, and suffer from lower self-esteem, headaches, stomachaches, and boredom.5 If we remain fixated on "obesity-related" concerns like the number of calories in soda, we're likely to overlook such broader societal problems affecting children. Physical activity and nutrition: seperate issues? These days, the issues of "nutrition" and "physical activity" are often needlessly linked. Sometimes, we're even asked to choose sides.

Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet Jeremy P. Tarcher See book keywords and concepts

Today's newspaper says that Coca-Cola is backing away from its aggressive pursuit of school contracts and explains that the company is reacting to concerns about commercialism in schools.29 It may Just be this resistance that gets kids eating more salad-bar salads and less of those soggy french fries of my youth. —Anna have absorbed. It kept part of me assuming that if I really figured out life, I would be stable, and that meant not changing. But the question isn't, as Alice reminds us, to get beyond change. It's to develop the confidence that we can meet change full-face—embrace it, even.

Food Fight Kelly Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen See book keywords and concepts

JUNK FOOD 101: Schools, commercialism, and Unhealthy Eating When Susan Crockett walked Amy, her eight-year-old daughter, to her school bus stop last September, she was in for a surprise. The school bus that rolled up was covered with advertisements for Burger King, Wendy's, and other name-brand products. A few weeks later, Amy, a third grader, and Crockett's three older children arrived home toting free book covers and school planners covered with ads for Kellogg's Pop-Tarts and Fox TV personalities.

Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet Jeremy P. Tarcher See book keywords and concepts

Commercial Alert For other information about commercialism in schools and how to get involved in your own community. 4110 SE Hawthorne Blvd. #23 Portland, OR 97214-5246 www. commercialalert. org awakening the sleeping giant We can choose to buy from local, family farms. Two examples of producer-consumer resources on the Internet: Community Food Security Coalition A national coalition working to build equitable, healthful, sustainable, self-reliant and community-based food systems through policy advocacy, education, research, and organizing. P.O.

Water: For Health, for Healing, for Life: You're Not Sick, You're Thirsty! F. Batmanghelidj See book keywords and concepts

Labeling peptic ulcer disease as an "infectious condition," in my opinion, provides another opportunity for commercialism in medicine to thrive. Because we do not recognize heartburn as a signal of body thirst, its significance is not understood until an ulcer develops. However, the consequences of this chronic dehydration do not confine themselves to the stomach and intestine. There are many associated health problems that will gradually reveal themselves. Everyone should be alert to heartburn as a major thirst pain of the body, which can occur at all ages.

Food Fight Kelly Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen See book keywords and concepts

Opposition to commercialism in Schools Just as there has been strong opposition to children's advertising, as explained in Chapter 5, many people and organizations object to the commercialization of schools. Objection ranges beyond food products, but food marketing is the most commonly criticized.

Both national and local groups have been involved, including Commercial Alert, Consumers Union, Citizens' Campaign for Commercial Free Schools, commercialism in Education Research Unit (at Arizona State University), and the Coalition for Public Education (part of British Columbia Teacher's Federation in Canada). These groups involve a broad range of individuals (parents, teachers, people from child advocacy and consumer protection groups, scientists), have websites, and offer ways to get involved. Commercial Alert has been especially active at the national and even international level.

For instance, Seattle parents gathered examples of advertising in schools and successfully halted school commercialism in their area.65 "The kids we're reaching are consumers in training." —Joseph Fenton of Donnelly Marketing' Early Signs of a Turning Tide Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Rep. George Miller of California commissioned a study on vending machines in the fall of 2000 and found wide variance in the regulation of the machines from school to school.67 Several senators have been working to introduce legislation restricting marketing and snack and soda sales in schools.

None of the policies were directed at more recent media-based commercialism (e.g., Channel One). Based on reports that children were lured to report personal information to databases, Congressman Miller and Senator Dodd introduced a bill to protect children's privacy from market researchers.71 Grassroots efforts make a difference. In 1999, New York parents brought a class-action lawsuit that resulted in an agreement that schools can sell only nutritious snacks during lunch.

Some legislators have begun to propose bills requiring schools to limit commercialism in schools. These bills are dependent on constituent support. End Tax Breaks for Contributions to Schools Coupled with Commercial Messages Corporations should not be discouraged from supporting education, but opportunities to promote products should not be a quid pro quo. Tax law should not permit financial benefit to occur from these activities.

Food Politics Marion Nestle See book keywords and concepts

Channel One and More The most prominent, most scrutinized, and most vilified intrusion of commercialism into school life surely is Channel One, the 12-minute television program beamed into 12,000 schools throughout the United States and viewed daily by 8.3 million students. Two minutes out of every program are devoted to commercials. The private company responsible for Channel One provides, for the entire school, television sets and installation hardware estimated to be worth about $17,000.

Rockefeller Medicine Men: Medicine and Capitalism in America E. Richard Brown See book keywords and concepts

Few members of the corporate class, even those without profit-making medical investments, railed against "commercialism" in medicine, as Rockefeller philanthropy officers had done in their drive against private practitioners early in the century. Even most bureaucratic professionals, who do not themselves have a financial stake in profit-making medical care, preferred to ignore the issue.

As Abraham Flexner later noted, "Nothing has perhaps done more to complete the discredit of commercialism than the fact that it has ceased to pay. It is but a short step from an annual deficit to the conclusion that the whole thing is wrong anyway."52 In Chapter 4 we will see how these conditions provided an opportunity for the AMA and capitalist foundations to transform medical education in the United States. For the moment it is enough to note that without sufficient capital and endowments, no medical school could survive in the era of scientific medicine.

Greene put it, to abate "commercialism in the medical profession."69 If the elite, standard-setting medical schools supported by the GEB adopted the fixed-price schedule for medical services, Gates argued, "public sentiment, in no time, will enforce those schedules, if reasonable, not only throughout their cities but other cities and finally the country at large."70 The full-time plan played a central role in foundation funding of medical education for the following important decade of development.

One of the main obstacles in that struggle has been private practice physicians, whose desire to profit from other people's sickness and suffering evoked angry opposition and accusations of "commercialism" from Gates and his colleagues. Because the interests of the organized medical profession conflicted with the goals of disseminating the technical benefits and ideological influences of medicine as widely as possible, the Rockefeller philanthropies attacked the profession head-on.

Empty Harvest Dr Bernard Jenson and Mark Anderson See book keywords and concepts

His Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research was a lighthouse as food adulteration and commercialism swept the twentieth century. science and health, technology and manufacturing, nutrition and biochemistry, and raising the quality of life for humankind. Like many pioneers of science and philosophy, he had little patience for the manipulation of science and facts to serve and preserve the powerful vested interests that profited from the ignorance and gullibility of a trusting populace.

Food Politics Marion Nestle See book keywords and concepts

Filling the gap are organizations such as the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education (Oakland, California) and the Center for Analysis of commercialism in Education (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee). These groups publicize the most blatant conflicts of interest in books and articles, file petitions with state legislatures, encourage lawmakers to ask for investigations and to introduce bills restricting commercial activities in schools, and demand that marketers stop advertising on Channel One. By 2001, their efforts were gaining increasing publicity and support.

Health in the 21st Century: Will Doctors Survive? Francisco, M.D. Contreras See book keywords and concepts

Shelton in his book Hygienic Review in which he states, "Science is the ever subservient handmaiden of commercialism; and we should not be surprised by the fact that the scientists can find and have found justification, even if only fictional, for all the practices that are fostered by the commercial world for profit." The majority of the world's population uses medications that have probably been evaluated by dishonest scientists, and approved by government officials who dance to the music of money.

The Medical Racket Martin L. Cross See book keywords and concepts

That hasn't happened, except through the crass commercialism of the HMO business, which has given the doctors an ultimatum to save money and, in their role as insurance people, allowed themselves, in effect, to practice medicine without a license. In fact, the Pew Commission uses the HMO devastation as one of the reasons why we should graduate fewer doctors. Speaking of an "emerging health system" dominated by managed care organizations, they say that medical schools must accommodate themselves. In reality, the HMOs should do the adapting.

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