Kids like Junk Food with Cartoons on It

VGmoz

No real shocker here. Kids like watching cartoons. Kids like junk food and snacks. Put the two together and WHAM you're a marketing genius!

And its not just little kids. Cap'n Crunch has a stranglehold on older kids too. I knew a guy in college who used to eat Crunch Berries and hotdogs for dinner. His name was Stu Pidd.

But back to little kids, a new study confirms that cartoon characters do attract kids to junk food.

Writing in the journal Pediatrics, researchers found 50% of children say food packages decorated with cartoon characters taste better than the same exact food in a plain package. So it's no surprise that when given a choice, most children pick the food with the cartoons on it.

Health experts are worried about the "magnetic effect" of putting cartoons on junk food will have; automatically gravitating kids to unhealthy food.

Psychology experts contend children under the age of 7 or 8 don't understand the "persuasive intent" marketing can have, and think that it's unfair to use cartoons and we should protect our children from this sort of advertising.

It's a tough call. Food producers want to sell products and slapping a familiar cartoon face on the box is a great way to move over-priced sugar-coated chocolate cereal puffs, so you can't just tell companies, "No, don't do that!"

Instead, it's up to the parents. Yeah there is a lot of junk food with superheroes on it, just don't buy it. If a kid throws a tantrum, oh well! They'll get over it.

And seek out better alternatives. Take cereal for example. Try Wheaties, at least they put athletes on their boxes. Peyton Manning is a step up from Dora the Explorer, plus he has a higher quarterback rating.