The food and beverage industry plunks down nearly $2 BILLION dollars annually marketing mostly unhealthy food to kids. This at a time when our children are literally getting sick with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and other diseases related to being overfed a steady diet of junk food. At times, battling all those marketing dollars feels futile and makes me want to throw in the towel.
This week I learned about one woman, Bettina Siegel, who didn’t throw in the towel at all. Instead, this writer, mom, and child nutrition advocate used creativity to fight back, and not in any conventional manner. Bettina wrote and illustrated a compelling children’s story about a factory owner who gets a perfectly wholesome town hooked on processed food. It is to food what Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax was to the environment. Done completely in rhyme, the video entertains while teaching kids to be savvy consumers, less vulnerable to the messages of junk food advertisers.
I’m sharing this in hopes that you’ll set aside 12 minutes to watch it with your kids. Cuddle up, pop some real popcorn with real butter, and give it a look. If you like what you see, pass it on, to your friends, your family, your children’s teachers, anyone, really, who is willing to listen.
Because what’s a little ‘ole $2 billion when you’ve got this kind of ingenuity.