Hw#5 Dominant Discourses

          "The baby-carrot industry tried to reposition its product as junk food, starting a $25 million advertising campaign whose defining characteristics include heavy metal music, a phone app and a young man in a grocery cart dodging baby-carrot bullets fired by a woman in tight jeans." This quote immediately caught my attention and made me even go back and read it again to verify what I just read. After doing so I came to the conclusion that these people are trying to market vegetables as junk food. I am able to comprehend why they might say this because they are trying to use a new tactic to get kids to eat vegetables. However, it is capable of sending the wrong message to the public. This is basically saying that the kids of America should be tricked into eating vegetables by telling them its actually junk food. This seems to me as a dominant discourse in the food world today kids do not eat vegetables nearly as much as they need to and should. Instead kids including myself seem to be attracted to snacks with a high amount of sugar, fat, and sodium. Reasons like this are why many American kids are putting themselves at high risk of obesity and diabetes. To me it seems as though the dominant discourse is trying a new way to get their point across and out by attacking the youth first before it's to late. Personally I think it's a great strategy and may be the only way to encourage children to eat vegetables more. Some may think lying to children is cruel but all the other ways weren't working so I guess we needed to try something new.
          In my eyes the food ways of a person falls into three categories. The citizen whose brain gets clogged up with media ideas business men put on television, radio, newspapers, and billboards and there food ways because those that benefit the companies instead of the customer. On the other hand there is the more cautious citizen who analyzes and is capable of seeing through the deception of the media.Lastly there is the citizen who is beginning to understand how things really work and is trying to not fall victim to the media's influence that once had control over them. Personally I think I fall in all of these categories, and I'm constantly shifting from category to category.  The first citizen probably goes to McDonald's where prices of food are extremely low at times, and very conveniently located for them, their food ways are probably rather unhealthy. The second citizen probably makes a conscience effort to stay away from "unhealthy'' foods but isn't completely ready to give up fast food and their food ways are probably decent. The third citizen probably feels a bit uncomfortable being around fast food restaurants and makes goals on how much they eat fast food probably once a week, or once a month. Their food ways are probably good. 
          When criticized on the news business men that run companies like McDonald's should be given a chance to defend themselves. I would love to see on a news station a debate between, a business man in control of a fast food company, a doctor specializing in human health, a professional chef that cooks a variety of meals, and a average citizen.. The people would be able to hear the sides of all these different people. The defense for selling unhealthy food products may be that they just want to make the most money they can possible. Think about if you were in there situation would you do the same or not. 


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/25/health/policy/25vegetables.html?_r=1&emc=eta1