UNHEALTHY ‘GOODS’ AND THE CAPITALIST INDUSTRIES

3 min readAug 6, 2019

Currently living in an era where obesity surrounds us, it is about time to analyse its causes and linked to advertisements. In the US, a kid see approximately three to five ads for junk food per day and that is without counting the ones he sees when he goes back home and watches TV which has been tripled over the last 30 years.

Mass advertising and the food industry are responsible for a child’s obesity. It is also getting worse with the digital ads which are based on data and increase the amount of junk food ads while a kid in on the net or on social media. Karl Marx has defended that workers get paid little while capitalists get rich. If we could refer it our advertising nowadays, the food industry and those massive brands selling ‘malbouffe’, we could denounce that capitalists are rich and obsessed with healthy food while workers are poor and addict to junk food. Fast food companies spend billions per year to advertise junk food and have an impact on children’s, the easy target.

Junk food advertisement works on kids. Marketers use animations, Disney characters or famous teens singers on the foods advertisements for a snack, biscuits, cereals, ice cream or fast food. Brands also own their own website with games and entertainment for children and teenagers. The power of the food industry is nowadays disconcerting and reflect the predictable theories of Karl Marx about the fact that capitalism introduced in our life what we don’t need.

It is getting worse, not only capitalism sells things we don’t actually need but, they sell dangerous and unhealthy food with using a vulnerable target such as a kid. The amount of advertisement selling biscuits, sweets or fast food high in fat, sugar or sodium is nowadays alarming. It has been proved that 1 of 3 kid born in the US is exposed to a risk of obesity.

A 13-year-old British boy died due to his weight and Mc Donald or Oreo still wish for having the permission to advertise food on school buses. The responsibility for his death, are not the brands, the junk food producers or the advertisers but the capitalist in the food industry which are more focused on making profits than controlling their actions on child obesity.

Karl Marx was a visionary, all he was known for wasn’t completely relevant and clever but he was right about the selfishness of someone owning a huge company such as coca-cola, Mc Donald, Pepsi or Nestlé. Everything is about the power of owning and not the power of sharing or caring.

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UNHEALTHY ‘GOODS’ AND THE CAPITALIST INDUSTRIES

Written by clara amblard