Using Marketing Muscle to Sell Fat: The Rise of Obesity in the Modern Economy

Abstract

The large increase in obesity in the past 30 years has often been explained in rational choice terms; for example, a decline in food prices has engendered greater food consumption. On closer examination, this kind of explanation does not fit the facts of the current obesity epidemic. Instead, an unprecedented expansion in the scope, power, and ubiquity of food marketing has coincided with an unprecedented expansion in food consumption in predictable ways.Ongoing protestations that the causes of the recent increase in obesity are unknown may overstate the case. Ample evidence indicates that the obesity epidemic is, at least to a large degree, the result of increased marketing power over the American diet. Only by reigning in or countering marketing power can rationality be restored to the dietary choices of Americans.

Disparities in Obesity-Related Outdoor Advertising by Neighborhood Income and Race

“…Some researchers argue that a coordinated social marketing campaign with hard-hitting messages on processed snacks and sugary drinks can improve dietary behaviors. 2 This may be the most viable option to counteract unhealthy advertising. Banning outdoor ads for specific products is unlikely since current laws protect advertising as a form of commercial free speech.…”

Increasing public support for food-industry related, obesity prevention policies: The role of a taste-engineering frame and contextualized values

“…The food industry inundates the public with a barrage of advertising to induce overconsumption. Examples include not only traditional advertising, but also food-company sponsorship of special events, product placement in film and TV shows, advergaming, and so on (Harris and Graff, 2012;Institute of Medicine, 2005;Zimmerman, 2011). The purpose of this advertising is to increase the salience of food products, which increases the frequency of consumption.…”

“…The remaining measures of obesity causality, (healthy food affordability and the workplace environment) are derived from the literature (Beaulac et al, 2009;Yancey, 2009). The study also examines additional causal attributes of obesity including fatalism (Shugart, 2011), food addiction (Brownell and Gold, 2012), and the role of food advertising (Zimmerman, 2011). The question pertaining to perceptions of responsibility originate from previous studies measuring public opinion on who is responsible for addressing obesity (Evans et al, 2005;Niederdeppe, Shapiro, et al, 2011;Oliver and Lee, 2005).…”

Unconscious Agendas in the Etiology of Refractory Obesity and the Role of Hypnosis in Their Identification and Resolution:A New Paradigm for Weight-Management Programs or a Paradigm Revisited?

“…Obesogenic genes, an obesogenic uterine environment, an obesogenic upbringing, an obesogenic lifestyle and the free availability of an obesogenic diet, have all been shown to contribute to varying degrees to the likelihood of becoming an overweight or obese child, and in turn, an obese adult with major biochemical and physiological disorders requiring long term medical and social support (Spruijt-Metz, 2011;Freeman, 2010). Most of these obesogenic factors have been, or are becoming, clearly identifiable and mapped (Vandenbroeck, Goosens & Clemens, 2007), and their impact quantifiable, if not always acknowledged or avoidable (Shawky & Sadik, 2012;Hruschka & Brewis, 2012;Levine, 2011;Zimmerman, 2011). Less well understood however are the emotional, psychological and psychodynamic concomitants which influence eating behaviour and weight maintenance, necessitating a behavioural approach in their management (Fitzgibbon, Blackman & Avellone, 2000;Allison & Baskin, 2009: Wilson, 2010Chivers, 2011;Pettigrew, Pescud & Donovan, 2012), and for which an intervention such as hypnotherapy would appear to be the most appropriate route to their modulation and amelioration.…”