Beware fast food sales pitch

Americans have been inundated with a psychological barrage of images that represent fast food as being fun and delicious, and the cartoon icons that represent these companies ubiquitously line our streets and occupy our television screens. When you are an aware adult who is conscious enough to do your research and understand how unhealthy these foods are, you may be able to simply bypass the burgers. But when you are a child who has grown up with these symbols, they become psychological triggers that equate to happiness and “fun,” and once that notion becomes embedded it is difficult to dislodge. When these children become teens, they have limited spending money and nowhere to go in our corporate strip mall culture except these fast foods joints that serve unhealthy slop on the cheap.

There is a metric in the advertising business called the “Ace Score” that gauges public reaction to commercials, measuring how convinced watchers are by the message that is being conveyed and how entertaining the commercial is. Fast Food companies are attempting to spin their products as being healthy because they recognize that many consumers have caught on. Many of us don’t want to follow the quick-serve path that leads directly to the pharmaceutical industry once you get high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease from eating the garbage that they serve.

Ace Metrix is the company that provides the Ace Score, and they are finding that fast food efforts to shed their offerings in a more healthy light are paying off, with commercials from places like Taco Bell, KFC, Subway and Applebees achieving better-than-average scores. In corporate America the truth matters not…it is the perception that makes the cash registers go cha-ching. The pharmaceutical industry depends on the ailments that are caused by overconsumption of fast foods, and big pharma is one of the few major players calling the shots in Washington. Stay aware and don’t allow yourself to be fooled by expensive attempts to convince you that eating at Subway, Taco Bell or KFC is somehow good for your health.