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I Will Blame the Eater Although it seems harmless to have a burger here or some nuggets there, there are serious ramifications to the actions taken; even though some would argue that society is at fault in this, the individual is still primarily to blame for these actions as they have direct and full control over what they eat and in what quantities. Thusly, the blame has nowhere else to fall but on the eater; they should be more aware and not fall prey to the advertising of fast food or the convenience of their locations, or simply just eat less of it and significantly reduce the impact of whatever fast food they do consume. The fast food industry has become overwhelmingly effective at marketing their products to society and is slowly approaching becoming as seductive as the tobacco advertisements from years past. According to Kelly Brownell, director and co-founder of the Rudd Center, “going to a fast food restaurant is no longer a special event, it’s ingrained in our culture and that’s why it’s of concern;” this is much more than an effective ad campaign at this point. Fast food is becoming a staple in the diet of the easily influenced, addicted eaters, and the manipulated youth. According to Freeman and Merskin, these ads primarily target men and small children. They target men through suggesting that eating meat is conducive to giving off an aura of masculinity and that their food has an abundance of meat, while the truth is just the contrary. They manipulate the viewer’s opinion when they advertise to children as well by promoting them as

Edington 2 having more of a say in what they want. This directly targets their lack of control in their own life as children living with their parents have very little independence, and that going to their fast food restaurants and eating their food is a release from the “oppression by their parents.” Obviously, these are all gimmicks; they are forced to promote their food as a sort-of release from something controlling them in their lives and that they would be wise to eat their food because it will benefit them in some way or another rather than just advertising the food itself. That should hint to any consumer that the food their advertising might not be up to snuff, if they have to distract the viewers with other things in their ads. However, even with all these distractions, if these choices were just given the tiniest amount of foresight the correct conclusion would be obvious: that the fast food industry is trying to swindle you into buying their products, and that it would be an unwise decision to purchase it because it is unhealthy and very expensive over an extended period of time. The fast food industry makes a persuasive argument to consume their products, but that does not mean that they should be held accountable for the actions of individuals. Like the tobacco ads years ago, the advertising campaign of the fast food industry is portraying their products as problem solvers, rites of passage, and "what everybody is doing." These campaigns are becoming almost seductive in their advertisements; in some cases they are seductive such as the Paris Hilton commercial, in which she advertises a burger by washing a car and eating the burger in a very erotic manner. These campaigns have become obscene and are polluting the minds of young children and easily influenced adults. They have become overly condensed with things that are unrelated to food and contain an alarming amount of sexual