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McDonald's; Burger King; Wendy’s; Coca-Cola; Pepsi; Mountain Dew; PopTart; M&M; Pizza Hut; Cheetos; Taco Bell; Oreos; and more....
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These are reports of the deceptive marketing practices of the Big Fat Industries.
September 27, 2007
"Utah County looks at dangers of energy drinks"
By Cathy Allred, Daily Herald 'Move over sugar, caffeinated drinks are the new addictive substance for children, according to Utah County representatives.'
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August 13, 2007
"Taco Bell and Mountain Dew Baja Blast offer Major League Baseball World Series experience of a lifetime"
Press Release, Colorado Rockies™ 'With pennant races heating up, Taco Bell®, the Official Quick Service Restaurant of Major League Baseball, today announced a dream come true for Major League Baseball fans with The World Series Experience of a Lifetime sweepstakes. Purchasing a Large or Extra Large Mountain Dew Baja Blast® -- exclusively available at Taco Bell stores -- or other Pepsi-Cola soft drinks at Taco Bell could land one lucky individual and a guest a trip to the 2007 MLB® World Series including tickets for every game and perks beyond one's imagination. '
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August 10, 2007
"Product Packages Now Shout to Get Your Attention "
By Louise Story, New York Times 'In the last 100 years, Pepsi had changed the look of its can, and before that its bottles, only 10 times. This year alone, the soft-drink maker will switch designs every few weeks.'
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May 16, 2007
"3 On Your Side: Fast Food Salads"
By Jim Donovan, CBS Broadcasting Inc. 'Enter any fast food restaurant and you'll have your choice
of great-looking new salads. And while many people think they're low calorie, not all of them are. 3 On
Your Side's Jim Donovan shows you what's really in the salad you're eating. While salads offered at fast
food restaurants can be healthy and nutritious choices, you really need to careful if you're counting calories.'
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May 7, 2007
"Marketing and name of Cocaine Energy Drink come under fire"
By Jason Lea, News Herald 'Mentor resident Kevin Clarke was upset to see Cocaine in a Convenient
Food Mart in Mentor. No, not the white powder - Cocaine Energy Drink, which, until recently, branded
itself as "the legal alternative." "It appears to me that it is below-the-belt marketing," Clarke said.
"This seems to be a slap in the face to drug awareness."'
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April 25, 2007
"Advocacy Group: Drop Shrek From Anti-Obesity Ads"
By Associated Press, Foxnews.com 'A children's advocacy group wants the Department of Health and Human Services to oust Shrek,
the animated ogre, from his role as spokesman for an anti-obesity drive. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood says
the soon-to-open "Shrek the Third" has too many promotional ties with unhealthy foods to justify using Shrek as a health
advocate.'
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March 21, 2007
"Brownback Addresses Joint Task Force on Media and Childhood Obesity"
'U.S. Senator Sam Brownback today attended the first public meeting of the Joint Task Force on Media and Childhood Obesity, a public-private group dedicated to examining the impact of media and advertising on children's health.'
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March 12, 2007
"McDonald's Gets its Web Game On"
By David Radd, GameDailyBiz 'While console games based around Ronald McDonald, Hamburgular and other McDonald's mascots are not in the cards (yet),
the leading fast food chain hasn't been sitting idly by while rival Burger King pumps out Xbox titles. McDonald's so far has been using
the gaming medium for advertising purposes on a smaller scale but is considering the console advergames route for the future.'
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February 20, 2007
"Fast-food rivals suit up for breakfast war"
By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY 'Hamburgers, schmamburgers. Fast food's fiery new battleground
is the breakfast table. Just about everyone - even coffee kingpin Starbucks (SBUX) is entering the
hot-breakfast arena in 2007 with new offerings. At stake: a piece of the $77.6 billion breakfast
market that, for the fast-food giants, can mean the difference between growth and stagnation.'
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February 20, 2007
"A Desired Epidemic: Obesity and the Food Industry"
By Deborah Cohen, The Washington Post 'In the Middle Ages, alchemists sought to turn common metals into gold.
Today some doctors and scientists seeking to prevent and treat obesity in the United States are attempting
an equally difficult transformation. They want to change people, their willpower, their lifestyles, their
metabolism, even their DNA to make it harder to gain weight and easier to lose it.'
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January 22, 2007
"People make free ads for snack food on YouTube"
By Catherine Tsai, Associated Press 'Chipotle Mexican Grill has done it. So have
Good Times Burgers, Quiznos and Oreo. Those food companies and others have asked customers
to create video tributes to what they're eating, turning the best submissions into ads.
The homemade videos end up online, the word of mouth spreads, and suddenly thousands of
people around the world get a glimpse of just how some guy likes to eat his Domino's pizza.'
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January 11, 2007
"Jeweled Pepsi can bows as Bowl bling"
By Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY 'In order to put some pop into its sponsorship of the Super Bowl XLI halftime show, Pepsi will give away a $100,000 jewel-studded soft-drink can to a lucky fan.'
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January 5, 2007
"Sprite Launches Search for LeBron James' Theme Song"
NBA Media Ventures LLC 'Think you've got what it takes to mix the winning music
and beats to match LeBron James' distinct take on Sprite's subLYMONal ad campaign? Starting
this week at www.LeBron23-23.com, one musically astute Sprite drinker will win the chance
to do just that as part of Sprite's nationwide search for LeBron's theme song.'
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December 29, 2006
"Smell that? Someone's trying to sell you something"
By Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY Take a deep breath and get ready for an olfactory onslaught:
Nostrils are becoming a target for marketers. As more jaded consumers turn up their noses at
traditional ads and marketers scramble for alternatives, scent-based promotions are growing.
Trade journal Advertising Age just named scents as an expected top ad trend in 2007.
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December 20, 2006
"Big Biz Buddies Up With Gen Y"
By Chaddus Bruce, Wired News Becca Malm is a 23-year-old punk club manager who's anti-brand, but whose MySpace page was designed by a Nasdaq-listed soft drink company.
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December 08, 2006
"Coke Uses YouTube Stars for Holiday Campaign"
By Brian Morrissey, ADWEEK.COM 'After an initially cool reaction to amateur video auteurs, Coca-Cola is continuing its embrace of consumer creativity with a
YouTube promotion that taps several of the site's most popular video bloggers.'
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December 4, 2006
"'Calorie Burning' Enviga Tea Drink a Fraud, Group Says"
Press Release, Center for Science in the Public Interest 'Enviga, a new
carbonated green tea beverage, claims that it burns more calories than it provides,
resulting in "negative calories." But the nonprofit food watchdog group, the Center
for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), says that Enviga burns money, and over
the long term is more likely to result in a negative bank balance than negative
calories. Today CSPI served notice on Coca-Cola and Nestlé, the companies behind
Enviga, that it will sue them if they continue to market the drink with fraudulent
calorie-burning and weight loss claims.'
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October 2, 2006
"Burger King orders up Xbox games"
By Brendan Sinclair , GameSpot 'Last month, McDonald's introduced a line of Happy Meal toys featuring Nintendo mascots like Mario and Donkey Kong.
As part of the company's image-reworking emphasis on fitness, each of the toys had a physical activity focus. Today, McDonald's rival Burger King officially
announced a campaign that takes a different tack to a gaming tie-in. Instead of offering toys that evoke games and promote activity,
the fast-food chain is going to offer three Xbox and Xbox 360 games of its own this holiday season, each of them slathered with
Burger King branding like so much mayonnaise on a Double Whopper with cheese.'
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November 9, 2006
"Coca-Cola Introduces New Full Throttle Blue Demon(TM) Energy Drink"
Hispanic PR Wire 'Coca-Cola North America today announced that it is unleashing the
power of Mexican luchador (wrestler) and movie legend, the Blue Demon, in the latest version
of its popular energy drink, Full Throttle.'
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November 6, 2006
"McFlog? McDonald's Proves Wal-Mart Has No Monopoly On Fake Blogs"
By Tom Siebert, MediaPost Communications 'LAST WEEK, FAST FOOD RESTAURANT chain McDonald's was
the latest large corporation caught constructing fake blogs--or flogs--to promote the company or its products.'
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October 09, 2006
"Companies discovering the power of texting "
By Dave Carpenter, Associated Press 'CHICAGO — Like any normal consumer, Tom Gruss was leery of the idea of a company sending promotional text messages straight to his
cell phone. Who needs a bombardment of sales pitches in another format?'
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June 2006
"The
Char Mark Conspiracy"
By: Greg Spotts , Issue 106,
Fast Company Magazine. 'Subway's slogan is "Eat Fresh"--but
order the Grilled Chicken Breast and Baby Spinach Salad, and
you'll get defrosted, precooked chicken strips that have been
mechanically branded at a factory to look like they're hot off
the grill.'
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May 30, 2006
"Class
gets lesson in food marketing"
By JANESE HEAVIN,
Columbia Daily Tribune. 'West Boulevard Elementary students might
not be ready to give up cheeseburgers and pizza, but they have
wised up to tricky media messages.'
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May 19, 2006
"Sprite
redefines itself through 'SubLYMONal' advertising"
By Catherine, James Walker, Drinks Business Review Online. |
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May 18, 2006
"Flak Over 'Fast Food Nation"
By Janet Adamy and
Richard Gibson, The Wall Street Journal. 'U.S. Food
Manufacturers Rally To Oppose a Film and a Book That Blame Them
for Obesity.' |
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May 12, 2006
"Lost
mystery sponsored by soda"
By Colin Mahan, TV.com. |
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