The Dog Bowl Pet Supply and BARF Raw Food Blog

Have you noticed how powerful marketing has become? If you don't think it is all around us next time you are in a store pay attention to labels on the boxes and bags.

Just like a magazine cover images of "goodness" are plastered all around produced items to entice you to buy. From adult foods, to kid cereals, even to pet foods the labels are covered with symbols to convince you that that product is wonderful. But do we ever ask what are we REALLY buying?

Even if you are a ingredient label reader there are slick ways to separate ingredients that are no so desirable into 2-5 items so you won't recognize the one you know to look for!

Products now are being sold by popular cartoon character such as Shrek and more... But what does Shrek have to do with that item that is boxed or bagged? Great salesperson though - as the flavor industry is a billion dollar industry and counting!

Let's think about our kids for a moment. How are they being taught to be consumers?

If you have a family (kids and pets) we recommend read a book by Susan Gregory Thomas, who is a professor and investigative journalist. In her latest book, "Buy, Buy Baby," she examined how products are sold to kids AND their parents. Thomas said putting animated characters, like Dora the Explorer and Shrek, on everything from sugary cereals to macaroni and cheese has made it more difficult for parents at the supermarket.

"Well, I think oftentimes ... children are going to be gravitating to the licensed products," she said. "You know, they're gonna want the 'Dora' soup over the organic chicken stew."

And, said Thomas, the problem is evolving. Another difference, she said, is that older symbols like Tony the Tiger were confined to cereal. Modern characters sell everything, and they're also perceived as educational models...

"One of the things that is really difficult for children," said Thomas, "especially under the age of 8, is understanding the difference between advertising and reality. They just don't understand the persuasive tactics."

"They fall for it every time, and they don't understand that they are being led down a garden path in a deliberate way," she said.

So this brings us to one very good questions: Since it seems like marketing is growing a new generation of kids that "believe the labels" is it too late for us? Can we even tell the difference?

Ask yourself why you think that item is "natural"? What does it mean to be "organic"? How is that supposedly good item "able" to sit on a store shelf for a year or longer? Is it real food or just good marketing?