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With my quest for inner peace and my search for true happiness, I began to analyze everything I did during my day that could influence me. I won’t bore you with my entire day, but I discovered that a huge part of it is spent listening to, watching and reading media. Media being defined as all the means of communication, like newspapers, radio, internet, and TV that provide the public with news, entertainment, etc. , usually along with advertising. I get up in the morning and drink my coffee while scanning Yahoo news.
Without fail, it is mostly negative. I turn on the TV a few times during the day and I’m bombarded with advertisements for junk food, fast food, beer, and stuff that I don’t need. I drive to the office and I hear commercials on the Radio for the same. I see billboards showing me an anorexic looking female modeling clothes. I pass the McDonalds and see the golden arches in front which says below a bizillion served. The parking lot is full of overweight people with sodas in one hand and a bag in the other.
I go to the grocery store and see several of the products I saw advertised. Coke is on sale and piled up in the front of the store. I remember that there are nearly 10 teaspoons of sugar in everycan, so I resist buying a twelve pack. I look at my shopping cart and it has actual advertisements for junk food on it. I check out and see a dozen various tabloids talking of the latest diet or gossip. The back of my receipt appears to have a coupon for McDonalds.
Geez, these ads are everywhere, instructing me to eat food that will eventually kill me, drink booze, buy crap I don’t need, and to try the latest fad diet. With all of this bombardment, it’s no wonder my mood teeder todders up and down as well as my health, bank balance, and weight. I now see why I sometimes have this irresistable urge to drink a Coke on a hot day or get McDonalds on Fridays. I’ve seen THOUSANDS of advertisements for both of those products over my lifetime. And why is that? Well, repetition sells.
That’s why many ads repeat things over in the same commercial. If you hear something enough, it becomes true in your mind. If the news says the world is going to hell everyday, you’ll begin to think the world is. I’m an adult with some life experience, just imagine how kids are influenced. Childhood obesity is becoming a huge problem. As of 2000, 15% of kids ages 6 – 19 were obese. 10% of 2 to 5 year olds are overweight. Various experts theorized that the media may have contributed to this in the following ways