Progressive Wednesday

McPreschoolers

February 14th, 2008 by Matt

Today’s tasty bit of not-so-tasty news comes to us via VegNews, a fantastic progressive journal, but the article itself originally appeared on CNN.com. Anyhow, the upshot is this:

Anything made by McDonald’s tastes better, preschoolers said in a study that powerfully demonstrates how advertising can trick the taste buds of young children.

Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the kids when they were wrapped in the familiar packaging of the Golden Arches.

The study had youngsters sample identical McDonald’s foods in name-brand and unmarked wrappers. The unmarked foods always lost the taste test.

The groundbreaking study, first published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, demonstrates that corporate product branding is stronger than we ever realized. We have an uphill battle, if it wasn’t already obvious, against these mega-corporations. We’ll talk about this topic more in the future, but this is precisely why we believe that lobbyists, even those we agree with, must be booted from D.C. for good.

Back to the article for a moment…. My favorite (read: “the scariest”) tidbit is this: “Fifty-four percent preferred McDonald’s-wrapped carrots versus 23 percent who liked the plain-wrapped sample.” Even McDonald’s carrots taste better?! That, my friends, is some powerful marketing.

For more information about fast food and all its evils, check out our Wednesday on the topic — “I’m not lovin’ it.”

Picture clicked by this fine photographer.