Rudd Sound Bites

Giving Mickey D a Pat on the Back?

by Camille Lizarribar

”Supersize Me”, the October 9, 2008 post on Babble.com’s “Bad Parent” section (where controversial confessionals abound) by Jennifer Blaise Kramer caught my eye. On the one hand, I can feel sympathy for the author who wrestles with the difficulties of parenting in a society that often seems to delight in negative judgments of parents and children. (Just think of the reactions elicited by the flying-with-children stories that periodically crop up in the news.) In the end, however, I found the argument to be shortsighted because it dismisses the idea of fast food as unhealthy as mere snobbery while engaging in its own judgmental practices about food.

Top Vegetarian Chef?

by Andrea Wilson

The first episode of Top Chef’s fifth season will air on November 12 at 10 pm on the Bravo network. After filming in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago, the show will take its fifth season to New York City. Top Chef has received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program.

Know Your Number

by Becca Krukowski

There is some new eye-candy in the New York City subway cars this month—the “know your calorie goal” ads. The city health department launched this subway ad campaign featuring information about the number of calories most people should eat per day (2,000 calories).

Just When I Thought We Were Seeing Progress in Getting Licensed Characters Off of Junk Food…

by Jennifer Harris

Last week, I found myself at Target, in front of a free-standing floor display full of boxes of Kellogg's fruit-flavored snacks with a licensed character to appeal to every child: Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob Squarepants, Disney Princess, Nemo, Go Diego Go, Backyardigans and Little Einsteins. The display was strategically placed at the end of the check-out line, so that no child could miss it, and parents would be forced to either tell their preschoolers  "no" and risk a melt-down in the store, or just give in and buy a box.

The Hidden Power of the Environment, Part I

by Amir Goren

If you no longer find it surprising that we live in a toxic food environment (Brownell & Horgen, 2004), you may still be surprised to learn that most people are oblivious to the effects of their food environment in the first place.  In general, people are often unaware of situational, or environmental, influences on their thinking and behavior (e.g., Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).  New research by Vartanian, Herman, & Wansink (2008) shows that people ignore or underestimate the strong influence of environmental determinants on their eating behavior.  In this recently published study, the quantity of pizza or cookies consumed by participants was strongly influenced by the amount consumed by their experiment partners (the more the partners ate, the more participants ate).  However, almost no participants spontaneously identified the influence of their partners’ eating, and even when that reason was provided to them explicitly, participants rated that reason as having almost no effect.  At the same time, participants attributed their eating behavior primarily to factors that make intuitive sense (e.g., level of hunger, taste), even though these “personal,” non-environmental factors played a relatively small or insignificant role in how much participants actually ate.

Did They Go Too Far or Just Far Enough?

by Andrea Wilson

Skinny Bitch, written by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin and published in 2005, takes a bold approach to healthy eating. Some in the nutrition and obesity fields were skeptical of the book’s foul language and humor and titular claim that the reason to have a healthy diet is to be skinny and, therefore, attractive. Advocates saw beyond the clever marketing to the core message of the health and environmental benefits of a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, seeds and nuts, and without any animal products.

“Frisked for Chocolate and Fizzy Drinks”

by Rebecca Puhl

Efforts to reduce weight stigma appear to be needed in the UK as much as they are here in North America. Last week, health expert and Chairman of the Child Growth Foundation Tam Fry from the National Obesity Forum in the UK announced his idea that obese children should be removed from their families and placed into care, and that “those whose health is at risk should then undergo stomach-stapling operations.” Mr. Fry’s proposal that obesity should be treated as a form of abuse was presented at the National Obesity Forum’s annual conference last week. The National Obesity Forum is an independent charity, working to improve the prevention and management of obesity.

Selling la Rica Vida

by Camille Lizarribar

General Mill’s has recently announced the expansion of its Hispanic marketing platform into television through a partnership with Univision, the largest Spanish-language television network in the U.S. (See here, for example.) The expansion builds on General Mill’s existing website Qué Rica Vida, which promotes itself as an online resource for Hispanic moms “who seek lifestyle tips, culturally relevant recipes, and solutions that preserve their heritage and traditions.”  I was curious about this marketing initiative and decided to check out their website.

Pre-Conception Obesity Prevention

by Andrea Wilson

Who ever thought the day would come when childhood obesity prevention would start before pregnancy even begins? An article from the New York Times, titled “Honey, I Plumped the Kids”, discusses the possible interactions between obesity of pregnant women and the weight of their children.

Ad Men Produce New Diet Book

by Sarah Speers

There is a new diet book coming to town and it is stirring up a lot of speculation.  Ad man, Alex Bogusky, along with the help of his partner, Chuck Porter, has produced a diet book titled “The 9-Inch Diet” which focuses on portion control. For those of you unfamiliar to the ad world, Mr. Bogusky is the Co-chairman, Partner and Creative Director of Crispin Porter & Bogusky, one of the best ad agencies in the world.  So why the speculation? Because Mr. Bogusky is also the creative mastermind behind many of Burger King’s highly successful and popular advertising campaigns.  That’s right, the Subservient Chicken, Whopper Freak Out, Angus Diet, and other gormandizing ads all came from this man’s creative noggin.  I can’t help but join other speculators in wondering why the inventor of the Quad Stacker and the word “meatnormous” is writing a book about diet.