Eat Junk! (Slam Dunk)

By Quinn Phillips It's no secret that many, if not most, foods and beverages advertised on television are not exactly healthy. Advertisements for sugar-laden soft drinks vastly outnumber those for milk, just as ads for high-calorie snacks are seen far more than ads for fresh fruits and vegetables. Usually, food and beverage advertisements feature unknown actors who emphasize how great the product tastes, or how fun it is to consume. But when an advertisement features someone who is far from unknown — say, a famous actress or a professional athlete — viewers tend to associate that person's talent, beauty, or athleticism with the product being promoted. That's why many companies pay top dollar for celebrity endorsements: Basketball star Kobe Bryant, for example, reportedly took home $12 million a year for his endorsement deal with McDonald's a decade ago. But as Bryant's example shows, there is often a disconnect between the healthy image of an athlete and the nutritional content of the products he or she endorses. A study published last week in the journal Pediatrics sought to identify the prevalence of unhealthy foods in advertisements featuring athletes, as well as identify the worst-offending athletes. According to an article on the study in the Los Angeles Times, of the 512 brands or products endorsed by 100 top athletes in 2010 (the year of the study's data), 122 represented food and beverages. Almost 80% of the 49 endorsed food products were deemed high in ca...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - Category: Diabetes Authors: Source Type: blogs