Ban Cartoon Parents?

---by Micheal

A "watchdog" group in England has spoken out against food company cartoon characters like Tony the Tiger and the Quick bunny. The group (called "Which?" -- that cannot help but remind us of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First" routine) has called Tony and the others "cartoon villains." (click here for the Skynews.com story)

Why? Because they feel these cartoon characters promote childhood obesity. How can a printed tiger on cardboard affect the 3D world, you might wonder. The group says that happy, attractive cartoon characters promote eating the wrong foods and do not promote healthy eating habits in youngsters. The group stops short of demanding an outright ban on Tony and his gang. Instead, they want the food industry to be forced to make Tony promote healthy eating.

This proves that some "watchdog" groups really do not have anything useful to do.

Where in the blazes have the parents been all this time? Are these fat kids buying cereal and chocolate milk mix on their own? Where'd they get the money? What with child labor laws, they can't have jobs. Are these kids selling drugs or stealing to get cereal money? And, as long as I've got a rant going, since when has a product box become a kid's legal guardian? A whole 'nother scary thought is whether we are seeing the dawn of the Food Police Era. "Good" foods are permitted to have pretty packaging, but foods deemed "bad" must wear black or brown paper wrappers, or (in a nod to Hawthorne) a big scarlet "B"?

Now, maybe things have deteriorated to this sorry state in the UK. I don't know. I've not been there. Perhaps in the UK, cereal boxes really have become kids' parents. If this is true, then the UK has much larger problems to solve than fat kids. Oprah should be told. Liberalism needs to create another tax-funded agency or at least hold a benefit rock concert.

But for now, here in the US, parents are still supposed to be in charge -- not the kids, and certainly not the cereal boxes. If a child has an eating problem, such as over eating, look first to the parents. Of the few families I know with overweight kids, the parents also have a problem with food (bad choices and far too much consumed). The kids are not learning to overeat or eat fatty foods from Tony. They're watching what mom and dad eat and how much.

The silly group in the UK might force Kelloggs into drawing Tony with a fork of broccoli and saying, "It's Grrrreat!", or force him to wear the scarlet B, but it will have no effect. The kids are not looking to Tony for diet advice. They never were. Talk to the parents. Junior is not fat because Tony made him eat Frosted Flakes, or six bowls of them. That's mom and dad's doing.