Marketing and Diet

When the first caveman made the first spear he had to sell the idea to other cavemen and thus marketing was born. While I sincerely doubt that is the how the development of spears occurred the basic idea remains the same. Marketing has been around for as long as one group of people had to convince some other group of people that their ideas or products where the way to go. When we talk about marketing we often think of the traditional advertising and selling. Television advertisements, billboards, Times Square and the multitude of images on buildings, and even online advertisements can all be considered traditional or mainstream. Marketing also comes in many other forms. Job interviews are a type of marketing…you are selling yourself to a potential employer and in some cases they are selling themselves to you. The rise of online dating could even be considered marketing, you create a profile on a website and fill it with (hopefully true) things about yourself in an effort to entice someone to respond to your advances.

But is it evil as the title of this week’s assignment suggests? The low hanging ethical fruit of deceptive marketing is of course considered unethical as deception for profit is hard to justify and we will identify an egregious example below. Outright fraudulent statements about competitors are likewise hard to justify but are also low-hanging fruit when it comes to marketing ethics. The Small Business Administration provides resources to the numerous laws governing marketing on their website www.sba.gov should one wish to peruse them.

This post is not a discussion of marketing legal boundaries but rather ethics and there is one area (and possibly more but this blog would digress into a lengthy research project) where marketing can be considered to have breached ethical boundaries and that is “natural foods.”

What are natural foods? From the FDA, “From a food science perspective, it is difficult to define a food product that is 'natural' because the food has probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth. That said, FDA has not developed a definition for use of the term natural or its derivatives. However, the agency has not objected to the use of the term if the food does not contain added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances (www.fda.gov)” You may notice that doesn’t mean a great deal. Arsenic is naturally occurring but that doesn’t mean that it should be put in your peanut butter. So a manufacturer is free to place any substance they want in your food just so long as it is free from added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances. Well it’s a big world with lots of things in it and many of those things, healthy or not, can wind up in what you are eating.

Sugar and its derivatives such as high fructose syrups are considered natural foods by the above definition. The Union of Concerned Scientists states the food industry labels foods as natural while increasing their sugar content. High sugar diets may lead to health concerns such as obesity and high blood pressure. But…it’s natural right? Additionally sugar, and junk food in general, are placed in foods in order to create an addiction among consumers (Moss, 2013). Junk foods reward the dopamine centers of the brain and create addictions in much the same way that certain drugs create addiction. The low nutrient value of these foods ensures that people are hungry again in a few hours and will consume more of these foods.

According to the Urban Child Institute a poor diet, as an infant is linked to a large number of health concerns and they are much more likely to develop significant health problems as they age. Additionally, junk foods are less likely to have minerals such as iron and zinc. Iron and zinc are best sourced from animal proteins and a lack of these minerals can lead to deficiencies in the immune system (Walker et al, 2005).

The food industry is well aware of these concerns and Moss highlights the pressure the food industry puts on scientists and regulators to ensure that the greatest profits are made. Junk food is cheap to produce, addicts its consumers, and provides such low nutritional value that the sole consumption of junk food can lead to medical concerns. By labeling things as “natural” even if they are pumped full of sugar the food industry can market has healthy even when they are anything but healthy. This level of deception is entirely unethical and according to some metrics, sacrificing the health of a population for increased profit could be considered evil.



Truth in Advertising is the key to a Successful Business ... (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2016, from https://prezi.com/z9oeer78twok/truth-in-advertising-is-the-key-to-a-successful-business/



Sugar Coating Science: How the Food Industry Misleads Consumers on Sugar. (2014, June). Retrieved November 20, 2016, from http://www.ucsusa.org/center-for-science-and-democracy/sugar-coating-science.html#.WDIGlzKZPR0



What is the meaning of 'natural' on the label of food? (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2016, from http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/Transparency/Basics/ucm214868.htm



Moss, M. (2013, February 20). The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food. Retrieved November 20, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html



Nutrition and Early Brain Development. (2011, March 25). Retrieved November 20, 2016, from http://www.urbanchildinstitute.org/articles/updates/nutrition-and-early-brain-development





Walker, C. F., Kordas, K., & Stoltzfus, A. R. (2005). Interactive effects of iron and zinc on biochemical and functional outcomes in supplementation trials. Retrieved November 20, 2016, from http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/5.full