Madmarketing og reklamer til børn: Walmart's svar til Michelle Obama

Food Marketing & Advertising to Children – a speech in response to Michelle Obama’s urge to the industry

As the Chief Marketing Officer of Walmart, I feel some kind of responsibility, we have I problem in America, which should be solved fast. Therefore I have decided to respond to the First Lady’s appeal to manufacturing companies, the advertising industry and retailers.

I am going to talk about health and obesity in the USA – especially among children, what we find right and wrong in Mrs Obama’s speech, what we as a company has already done, and what we intend to do in the future.

So first lets talk about the real problem. Between 16 and 33 %of children and adolescents are obese in America. Obesity is among the easiest medical conditions to recognize, but most difficult to treat. Unhealthy weight gain due to poor diet and lack of exercise is responsible for over 300,000 deaths every year. The annual cost to society for obesity is estimated at nearly $100 billion. Overweight children are much more likely to become overweight adults unless they adopt and maintain healthier patterns of eating and exercise. Studies have shown that a child who is obese between the ages of 10 and 13 has an 80 %chance of becoming an obese adult and that’s just crazy. The causes of obesity are complex and include genetic, biological, behavioural and cultural factors. Obesity occurs when a person eats more calories than the body burns up. If one parent is obese, there is a 50 % chance that their children will also be obese. Actually 1 out of 3 children are about to develop diabetes. So you all can see, this is something we need to do something about.