Hamburgers = Heroin?

Posted By elissa on Oct 4, 2010 | 2 comments

I’m not quite sure what to make of this Australian community service announcement equating feeding fast food to children with hooking them on heroin.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P-4bzj9sdI]

Lord knows, it certainly catches attention, and is effective (in its own way) of making the point that a fast/junk food habit can be harmful – particularly when started early in life. But I have a few issues with it:

1. Shooting up a child is a deliberate act of abuse. Conversely, regularly feeding a child fast/junk food is more likely to be done out of ignorance, benign neglect or because preparing fresh food is difficult (such as in single-parent households and/or lower-income families living in “food deserts“).

2. It’s always Mom’s fault. Always. Fathers – when present – are just as “at risk” as the kids, since Mom – and only Mom – decides which foods the family will eat. So if Mom screws it up, everyone’s doomed.

3. A parent can certainly give his/her kids fast/junk food every so often, without causing any obvious harm. And – despite the fact that it’s (overly) energy dense – a lot of fast food menu items still possess some nutritional value. A hamburger, for example, provides some protein, vites and minerals. Your typical fast food meal is suboptimal, sure, but not totally beyond the pale. Conversely, I’m not aware that heroin has any redeeming value (except perhaps to dealers).

4. Obese/overweight people are not the equivalent of hardcore drug addicts – this is a degrading and insulting parallel.

Some may argue that the ad is useful precisely for its shock value, but it’s waaaay too over-the-top for me. Thus, I’m not surprised that it’s catching a lot of flak.