Exemplar for internal assessment resource Home Economics 3.4B for Achievement Standard 91469
Exemplar for Internal Assessment Resource
Home Economics Level 3
This exemplar supports assessment against:
Achievement Standard 91469
Investigate the influence of multinational food corporations on
eating patterns in New Zealand
Student and grade boundary specific exemplar
The material has been gathered from student material specific to an A or B assessment
resource.
Date version published by
Ministry of Education
•
•
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December 2012
To support internal assessment from 2013
The context for this resource is ‘How Multinational Fast Food companies influence
eating patterns in New Zealand.’
The annotations are linked to extracts from student work.
Only the step ups (quality of evidence) as outlined in Explanatory Note 2 have been
exemplified. A greater range of evidence would also be expected in the whole student
work. To achieve Excellence, the requirements for Merit and Achievement must also
be met.
© Crown 2012
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Home Economics 3.4B for Achievement Standard 91469
Grade Boundary: Low Excellence
1.
To achieve at Excellence level the student needs to relate a detailed analysis of the
practices used by multinational food corporations to the possible consequences of
those practices for the well-being of New Zealand society.
A detailed analysis (supported by evidence) is provided, focused on how our values
around etiquette and social behaviour (one factor only) have been influenced by fast
food franchises. Techniques used include the development of food and liquid products
– ‘can be eaten…salads’ (A) and ‘cup holders…perfectly’ (B).
Providing a ‘drive through’ and changing the environment to discourage people from
getting out of their car – ‘not too comfortable…their car’ (A) is another technique used.
Eating in the car is encouraged, however this can discourage conversation – ‘the
noise…on driving’, as do the following techniques – ‘sit in different rooms, or have the
television on’, ‘the single servings of everything’, ‘the habit of eating solo’ (B) and ‘open
twenty-four…a week’ (C).
The perception that people do not have time to cook has been promoted – ‘the drive
through…conversations’ (D), as has the need for bigger portion sizes – ‘make the
supersize…of fries’ (E). Each technique has been linked to changing people’s
behaviour and perception of what is considered ‘normal’ – ‘Multinational…other people’
(C).
Possible consequences for well-being have been explained at a personal, family and
societal level – ‘Our well-being…a week’ (F).
To reach Excellence more securely the student would need to critically analyse the
implication of the change in behaviour and values around social etiquette on long term
well-being at a societal level.
© Crown 2012
Student 1: Low Excellence
Please note – These are extracts from one Student’s Response
The social setting with which we eat in has changed ever since multinational fast food companies
entered New Zealand, which changed our eating patterns hugely. The first, and biggest, change in
social setting that caused a major change in our eating patterns was the fact that multinational fast
food companies supplied us with food that could easily be eaten while driving. All foods (except
salads) from McDonald's can be eaten with one hand so they can be eaten while driving. No knife
or fork is needed for any McDonald's item except for, again, salads. The environment at
multinational fast food restaurants is not too comfortable so that people don't want to stay longer A
than necessary so they may take it straight to their car (which is desired by these outlets to slow
down the gradual wear and tear from customers). The fact that they have a drive through
encourages people not to even enter the restaurant for the same reason.
An article in 'The Guardian' said that “the trend towards fast food is the biggest culprit for
abandoning traditional etiquette.” I definitely agree with this statement because cars have been
engineered to accommodate fast food just as fast food has been engineered to be eaten in cars.
There are cup holders that don't fit a drink bottle or thermos, but they do all fit a multinational fast
food company's soda cup perfectly. This isn't good, not only for dining etiquette, but also for social
interactions because instead of eating at a table with friends or family while engaging in
conversation, New Zealanders are eating in cars. This doesn't enable easy conversation because
of the noise; no one is facing anyone else, and the driver has to concentrate on driving although it
might be an advantage if you need to have a ‘difficult’ conversation with someone. Multinational
fast food companies make us believe that it is all right to eat in our cars, that we don't need to
socialise while eating. This has made our attitude towards going through a drive through and
eating in the car positive and therefore we do these things. This behaviour of ours is very different
to how it used to be when the whole family sat down at the dinner table and talked. Socialising
while eating helps us not eat as much (which is good for our health). “It is important to let children
(and encourage them to) identify their own physical feelings of hunger and fullness and to allow
them to use those signals as a guide for if and how much to eat during meal and snack times”
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(Satter, Division of responsibility in feeding.2011). This is important for establishing good eating
patterns. It takes longer to eat when talking rather than eating in silence. Many families do not sit
together when at home while eating is – busy timetables, advances in Technology such as
televisions and even the absence of tables and chairs have all contributed to this change of social
setting. Many family members will sit in different rooms to each other, or have the television on, so
they won't engage in conversation. This is a behaviour that has been encouraged by multinational
fast food companies because of the single servings of everything (e.g. a serving of fries, a serving
of coke and one burger). People may take fast food home and don't eat together because it isn't
necessary due to the single servings, or they have picked up the habit of eating solo while at fast
food restaurants and now do it with home-cooked meals too once they have dished up. There is
more eating in cars, and also when we are at home we usually eat in different rooms or while
watching the television.
Another way multinational fast food companies have changed our frequency and timing of eating is
that we eat more often because of how easy it is to eat now. Most McDonald's restaurants are
open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Whereas the traditional fast food restaurants,
such as fish and chip stores, were only open from about four pm to seven pm and only on certain
nights of the week (certainly not Sunday, but they had other days closed too). The fact that
multinational fast food companies are open twenty-four seven isn't good because it encourages
people to buy their food more often and to not just have it as a treat. Fish and chip stores have
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increased their hours to keep up with the competition they have with multinational fast food
restaurants, however they aren't open at all times of the day. Multinational fast food companies
have made us believe that we should be able to have fast foods at any time of the day really easily,
so we have a positive attitude towards the easiness of obtaining food. This has made us eat more
often and not always at regular meal times or with other people. Because of the frequency at which
we are eating fast foods and convenience foods, our cooking skills are going out the window. The
more convenience foods we eat, the more cooking skills we lose, and the more cooking skills we
lose, the more convenience food we buy.
Our food choices have changed drastically since multinational fast food companies were
introduced into New Zealand in the 1970's-1980's. When women started working, soon after
convenience food and fast food sales went up because women didn't have as much time to cook.
Now, with both parents still working, convenience foods are very common, which is bad because
they are generally high in fat, salt, sugar and low in good nutrients. Multinational fast food
companies purposefully make people think that they don't have time to cook. Advertising appears
all around us on billboards, public bus shelters, on public buildings and of course the Golden
arches are so recognisable. Dr Toomath states in a NZ Herald article that “advertising was a major
environmental factor which could be changed. The paper to the board's public health committee
described a "cityscape saturated in advertising" for high-calorie, low-nutrient food and sugary
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drinks.” The message they send reinforce that we don't have the time to cook, so we have a
positive attitude towards buying convenience foods and fast foods. We go through the ‘drive
through’ on the way home from work and buy dinner which does not require shopping for food,
spending time preparing a meal and then cleaning up afterwards. Everyone gets what they like and
can eat as soon as the parents get home – no need for conversations.
Our food quantity consumed has increased over the past thirty or so years because our meals and
snacks have gotten bigger. This was all because of a man named David Wallerstein (a McDonald's
board of directors chairman), who “could not induce customers to buy more than one soda”
according to 'The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan'. So to relieve people of the worry of
looking piggish by getting two sodas or fries, he decided to make the supersize option. People only
have to pay a few more cents to get a substantially bigger serving, but the company sells way
more litres of soda and kilograms of fries. This is bad for New Zealanders because it encourages
us to get bigger portions that we don't need, especially when it comes to fries and soda. An
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increase in these types of food (fatty, sugary, or salty foods) may lead to future lifestyle diseases
such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. So multinational fast food companies have made us
believe that we need bigger portions, which has given us a positive attitude towards larger
portions. These companies have changed our behaviour (and therefore eating patterns) in the
aspect of food quantity mainly in the way that they offer us, and we buy, supersized meal options.
These options are clearly highlighted on the boards at the ‘drive through’ and used as a marketing
technique by the operators who take your order.
These techniques employed by fast food companies discourage dining etiquette which is not a
good thing for our society as it is rude and lazy to have no etiquette. The social setting and
etiquette around meal time is connected to our well-being. Our well-being is greatly affected by
eating alone or in silence because it means that we don't have an enjoyable meal, so we may start
thinking that eating is not about enjoyment. Our physical well-being is affected by eating in silence
because we generally eat more as it takes less time to eat. The Food and Nutrition Guidelines for
healthy children and young people aged 2 – 18 years included the following research “Visual and
auditory distractions, particularly television, can impair people’s ability to monitor their food intake
by distracting them from satiety cues (JM Smith and Ditschun 2009). In the 2007 New Zealand
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Children’s Food and Drinks Survey, over half (53%) of parents and caregivers said their child
sometimes had his/her main meal in front of the television, a computer or video game player
(National Research Bureau 2008). Research has shown frequent watching of television during
meals is associated with increased consumption of unhealthy foods and decreased consumption of
healthier foods (Benton 2004). In the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Study, television viewing in
childhood and adolescence was strongly associated with obesity in young adulthood (Hancox et al
2004; Landhuis et al 2008a, 2008b). Therefore we eat more because it takes about fifteen minutes
for our body to realise that it's full, so we will eat more than necessary up until that time. This
means that, if we overeat every night, we may start to gain weight and develop lifestyle diseases
which are bad for our physical well-being. The prevalence of obesity has risen in New Zealand in
recent years. Results from the 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey showed the percentage of the
population who were obese rising from 16.6% in males and 20.6% in females in 1997 to 24.8% in
males and 26.0% in females in 2006/07. The same Health Survey found that 70% of children
between the ages of 2 and 14 years ate fast food at least once a week, 14% ate fast food twice a
week and 7% ate it three or more times a week. As the fast food companies have influenced
people into thinking bigger meals are the new ‘normal’ and it’s okay to have takeaways several
times a week and at any time of the day or night, you have to question the connection to the rising
rates of obesity
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Home Economics 3.4B for Achievement Standard 91469
Grade Boundary: High Merit
2.
To achieve at Merit level the student needs to analyse the practices used by
multinational food corporations and link these to changes in eating patterns in New
Zealand.
An analysis (supported with evidence) is provided, focused on how marketing (one
factor only) influences the food choices of children and their families. Reasons why
children have been targeted have been provided – ‘the main group…epidemic’ (A).
Practices targeted at children include pester power ‘subconsciously…restaurants’ and
‘children hop…McDonald’s’ (B).
The marketing technique of including toys with special meals has been analysed,
including connections to collectable items and website instructions on how to play with
the toys – ‘boring dinner…their toy’ (C). The use of this technique is challenged –
‘unfairly…meals’ and ‘New Zealand…with a toy’ (D). Sponsorship is analysed as a
technique that makes the companies appear as though they care for children –
‘McDonalds…diet’ (E) and ‘Cadburys…New Zealand’ (F).
Implications for the physical well-being of children have been alluded to – ‘This
gives…unhealthy food’ (F), however, more detail and evidence is needed to show the
connections to the lifestyle diseases listed.
To achieve at Excellence level the student would need to relate more possible
consequences of those practices for the total well-being of New Zealand at a societal
level.
© Crown 2012
Student 2: High Merit
Please note – These are extracts from one Student’s Response
Marketing to Children Multinational fast food companies use many marketing techniques to
make their products heard of, seen in a positive light, and remembered. One particular focus is
marketing to children through things like pester power, toys, Happy Meals and sponsorships,
which then influence what we eat.
Although multinational fast food companies target nearly all audiences, the main group targeted is
children because they have a lot of control over their parents spending. Marketing to children is
very effective because they buy into things more than adults do and don't know the consequences
such as lifestyle diseases. These practices used by fast food companies are used to promote and
familiarise the public with their brand name. Also because children are the consumers of the
future, multinational fast food companies want to get them loyal to the company's brand from an
A
early age. This will mean a lifetime of money coming from these customers. Parents are buying
more things for their children because families have more disposable income with both parents
working, smaller families, and having children at an older age. Plus parents may feel guilty for both
working as they don't spend as much time with their children, so they replace quality time with
their children for material possessions and other things they want. In ‘Challenging beliefs about
the marketing of food’, Robert Quigley, Carolyn Watts state “Choice is important—but we argue
that the right to choose a healthy diet has been all but removed from children today. We live in a
world where the saturation marketing/propaganda of unhealthy food is the norm and environments
support unhealthy choices—and yet we continue to be surprised that we are in an obesity
epidemic.”
One way multinational fast food companies market to children is because of pester power. This is
where children are subconsciously encouraged by multinational companies to pester their parents
for things they want – their products. For example, McDonald's did tests to find out how long on
average it took for parents to give in to their children's pestering about getting McDonald's while
driving. They found out that it took about fourteen kilometres, so McDonald's put their billboards
fourteen kilometres from McDonald's restaurants. Another pester power example is the Ronald
McDonald “Make it click” slogan. It encourages pester power because when children hop into the
car and “make it click” they associate it with McDonald's. So every time children get into the car,
McDonald's will hope they remember the “make it click” slogan and that they will pester their
parents to drive them to McDonald's. Pester power can be very effective, especially when there's
more than one child who all want the same thing because you could please them all at once. This
means that, not just the children's, but our eating patterns have changed to include more junk
foods because multinational fast food companies are influencing us to eat at their restaurants
B
through children. When multinational companies influence children to pester their parents, it
makes the parents believe that they should give their children what they want. This makes them
buy their products and give them to our children. The use of pester power is unethical towards the
child and unfair towards the parent - by taking away their control and simply making life harder for
them.
A strategy that a lot of multinational fast food companies have to make children want to go there
and pester their parents to take them there, is that they give away toys with their kids meals. To a
child, that is very appealing. Who would want to have a boring dinner at home when they could get
a McDonald’s Happy Meal that comes with a cool toy just by a bit of nagging? Plus the fact that
the toys are usually a range of collectable items means that children want to go to the fast food
restaurant many times in a short space of time to collect them all (an effective strategy employed
by these companies). McDonalds even has their toys on their website with the whole collection
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and even a step by step visual animated imaging to teach the child how to use their toy. It's a
good thing to nag and pester about too, telling your mum and dad that you only have one more toy
to go and then you've got the whole set. The consumers of the kids’ meals -children have the
belief that healthy home-cooked meals that have vegetables are boring compared to the unhealthy
fast foods because of toy marketing. Because of these changed values they pester their parents to
take them to multinational fast food restaurants to get the food so they can get toys. McDonald's
spends millions of dollars on advertising toys according to the 'Centre for Science in the Public
Interest' (CSPI). However is it really ethical to bribe children with toys to come to your restaurant
and increase all their chances of developing lifestyle diseases and loss of cooking skills?
The iconic toy that has accompanied the McDonald's Happy Meal for decades is at the forefront of
a legal vendetta by an American organisation, who says it unfairly lures children to eat unhealthy
meals. The consumer group claims the restaurant uses toys as a marketing ploy, and is
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threatening to sue the fast food giant for "unfairly and deceptively" marketing to children. New
Zealand anti-obesity campaigner Robyn Toothmath has welcomed the idea, saying proof exists
that children are drawn to meals which come with a toy. http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/domcdonald-s-toys-lure-children-3606789
Another way that multinational fast food restaurants make themselves seen by children is through
sponsorships. Sponsorships allow multinational fast food companies to focus on specific target
audiences, and give those people the idea that they care about them. McDonald's heavily
sponsors children's activities because as we already know, children are McDonald's target
audience. For example, McDonald's gives vouchers for free fries with any purchase to the
coaches of primary school sports teams to give to the players of the day. People believe that
McDonald’s is just being kind but it is really a ploy to make money. Parents will take their children
in to get their free fries, but first they have to purchase something, and if they have other children
(which McDonald's would hope for) the parents would have to buy something for them too, and
then they may also buy something for themselves. Free one dollar fries will end up costing a lot E
more than expected which fast food companies love. Children who do road patrol at school also
get the same voucher, so the same effect occurs. This is all just using children to get money from
their parents. A Waikato District Health Board research found that multinational fast food
companies “sponsorship of charities and sports events is partly to blame for New Zealand's
increasing levels of obesity and type two diabetes. Such sponsorship … sends a conflicting
message to children about healthy lifestyle and diet”. I find the last past of this statement to be
extremely accurate as children must think well I've played sport which is good for me, then I get
given McDonald's for doing well so that must be good for me too. This may turn into a bad habit of
buying fast food when you've done something good, which is not a good practice. Multinational
fast food companies also do sponsorships in schools to get even closer to children.
Cadburys sells chocolate to schools a little cheaper so that the school can sell it for the normal
price and they can fundraise for things like school trips. Here, Cadbury makes a lot of money
because they sell heaps more chocolate than they would if schools didn't buy it, even though they
sold it a bit cheaper. David Stuart states in ‘Educator Responses to Food-Related School
Business Relationships from a Socio-ecological and Health Promotion Perspective, 2005 that
“Selling food items as a way of fundraising may be a popular option for schools because they are
particularly easy to organise and may have a high profit margin for the school (i.e. Cadbury‟s
chocolate). Companies are able to work with schools to sell their products, whilst also creating
brand recognition at a young age. Often the children themselves or their families are the primary
customers of such fundraising, potentially increasing their access to energy dense treats.
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Estimates have suggested that several million chocolate bars are sold annually in this way
throughout New Zealand.” Sponsorships from multinational fast food companies have changed
New Zealanders eating patterns because they bribe children, and therefore their parents, to eat at
their restaurants. People believe that multinational fast food companies care about our children
because of the sponsorships that they partake in. However the reality is that once the brand of
McDonalds is firmly planted into a child’s memory, they are considered a consumer for life. This
gives whole families a higher chance of developing lifestyle diseases such as obesity and heart
disease. These fast foods are also low in many nutrients we need such as fibre, vitamins, and
minerals. If people eat this food regularly enough they may develop diseases such as bowel
cancer (not enough fibre), anaemia (not enough iron), scurvy (not enough vitamin C), or many
others. The Waikato district health Board in the article ‘Obesity, diabetes and fast food – the
impact of marketing to children states that “Indirect marketing may have both positive and
negative outcomes for communities (i.e. providing sports equipment to schools and clubs may be
beneficial in providing greater opportunities for physical activity, but may also promote greater
levels of consumption of unhealthy food)”.
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Home Economics 3.4B for Achievement Standard 91469
Grade Boundary: Low Merit
3.
To achieve at Merit level the student needs to analyse the practices used by
multinational food corporations and link these to changes in eating patterns in New
Zealand.
An analysis (supported with evidence) is provided, focused on how marketing (one
factor only) influences the food choices of children and their families. Some brief
reasons why children have been targeted have been provided – ‘children…their kids’
(A).
Practices targeted at children include toys (B), sponsorship – ‘fast food…their food’,
‘indirect marketing…and drinks’ (C), pester power – ‘Children…life’ and
‘importance…their kids’ (D) and safe playgrounds (E). More detail and evidence is
needed to show how toys and playgrounds influence children’s food and drink choices.
Advertising has been briefly analysed to show some of the techniques used to develop
brand recognition – ‘This advertising…$1.44’ (F).
Concerns have been raised about where the food comes from and the ingredients in
fast food – ‘There is…to eat it’ (G), and connections to possible lifestyle diseases (H).
More detail is needed to show the connections with fast food intake.
To reach Merit more securely, the student would need to analyse more practices used
to change children’s and adult behaviour around the purchase of fast food and
investigate the concerns in more detail supported with evidence.
© Crown 2012
Student 3: Low Merit
Please note – These are extracts from one Student’s Response
Marketing to Children - Multinational Fast Food companies and McDonalds know that
children have a lot of buying power influencing their parents and they are the adult consumer
of the future. Parents today are willing to buy more for their kids because trends such as
A
smaller family size, dual incomes and not having children until later in life mean that families
have more disposable income. As well, guilt can play a role in spending decisions as timestressed parents substitute material goods for time spent with their kids.
McDonalds is famous for using toys in Happy Meal. CPSI (Centre for Science in the public
interest) had researchers that found out McDonald’s spent over million on toy marketing.
Toys, a powerful temptation for kids are included with all Happy Meals, regardless of its
nutrition content.
B
McDonalds utilise many marketing strategies to persuade children to spend money in their
food outlets. Sponsorship from fast food outlets such as McDonalds gives a voucher card
from McDonalds which allows children to have a free fries with any purchase for that year.
They also award the player of the day, report card and rewarding good behaviour with a
treat. Each child going in to redeem their prize tends to bring along other family members
and often they all have to pay for their food. Also often foods need to be purchased before
token valid. A free $2 cheeseburger may cost the family a significant amount. McDonalds
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use what seem like a fun reward for good service to the primary schools to target families
into spending their money. They use children to spend money, if the vouchers not used the
parents are the bad guys not McDonalds. An article in the NZ Herald quoted Nick Chester
from the Waikato DHB as saying “indirect marketing such as sponsorship of charities or
sports events by fast food giants had become an ingrained pert of society and many people
did not notice it happening. It was part of a modern ‘obesogenic’ environment where people
relied on cars for travel, had sedentary jobs and passive forms of recreation with limited
opportunities for physical activity, which promoted the over-consumption of food and drinks.”
Pester Power refers to children’s ability to nag their parents into buying items they may not
otherwise buy. Marketing to children is all about creating pester power, because advertisers
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know what a powerful force it can be. Children and adolescents are targeted for several
reasons: they influence adult spending patterns through ‘pester power’, they have increased
spending power of their own, and because marketing to young people creates long-term
brand recognition and loyalty, which is important to the food industry given that eating habits
tend to persist throughout life. For example, McDonalds signage placements are always
placed 14 kilometres from a town where the next McDonalds is as they have worked out that
it is how long parents take to give in to continue nagging. According to the 2001 marketing
industry book Kidfluence, pestering or nagging can be divided into two categories –
“persistence” and “importance”. A persistence nagging is (a plea that is repeated over and
over again) is not as effective as the more sophisticated “importance nagging”. This appeals
to parents’ desire to provide the best for their children, and plays on any guilt they may have
about not having enough time for their kids.
McDonald’s playgrounds are highly visible having bright colours that can be seen from the
car. They are always situated on busy corners etc. prime real estate. Inside the playground is
safe where parents can enjoy having a chat with family/friends and yet, at the same time feel
relaxed that their children are safe inside the playground and away from any undesirable
people hanging around.
E
Another contributing factor is being bombarded by the media. This advertising happens all
around us in our everyday lives – driving down the road, at the supermarket – even the
packaging is coloured to attract our attention and then there is the new Technology –
television, internet, cell phones etc. The article - Obesity, diabetes and fast food – the impact
of marketing to children “In 2007, fast food companies spent $12.94 per person on
advertising in New Zealand. The amount spent on advertising healthy food was $1.44.”
Some parents feel like they cannot escape from all this advertising because they do not want
to feed their children cheap, convenience food. This sometimes leads to loss of control,- New
Zealanders had surrendered unconsciously about the knowledge of where their food comes
from. As quoted from Eric Schlosser (author of Chew on This), “There is a deliberate veil, this
curtain that’s dropped between us and where our food coming from. The industry doesn’t
want you to know the truth about what you are eating, because if you know-you might not
want to eat it”. These foods contain large amounts of additives (needed to make the cheap
fats, sugars and starches into acceptable foods) loss of taste, loss of sensory appreciation of
fresh, home cooked foods. All food tastes the same (standardization) and is low in nutritional
value, but high in energy.
From all this multinational fast food practices they all have a huge impact on the health and
wellbeing of New Zealanders. This may result in the number of diet related disorders such
as obesity & type 2 diabetes from eating a high fat diet, and hypertension from eating too G
much sodium to rise causing a financial burden on the economy (as money is required to
treat these people) also stress to the family members trying to take care of their loved ones
and sadness/ depression to the family member suffering from the diet related disease as
they may not feel that they can contribute/ support their family and may actually feel they are
a burden to them.
F
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Home Economics 3.4B for Achievement Standard 91469
Grade Boundary: High Achieved
4.
To Achieve this standard the student needs to explain factors that influence eating
patterns, present information on a range of practices used by multinational food
corporations to influence eating patterns and explain how the practices used by
multinational food corporations influence eating patterns in New Zealand.
The practice of marketing (one factor only) to children has been outlined (A). The use
of pester power has been explained supported with evidence – ‘ability to pester…on
the menu’ and ‘Some advertisers…products’ (B).
Fast food restaurants hosting birthdays is another technique used to influence children
and parents to eat their food (C). Sponsorship has been explained and supported with
evidence – ‘McDonald’s…touch rugby’ (D). The fast food focus on supporting the child
is balanced with the parents having to pay extra to redeem the rewards. Developing
brand loyalty is another technique that ensures longer term customers – ‘This kind
of…in 2005’ (E).
Some implications for well-being have been made, connected to lifestyle diseases.
Concern has been raised about the ability of children to determine what are healthy
choices – ‘Children…industry’ (F).
To achieve at Merit level the student would need to analyse more of the practices used
to influence children including more supporting evidence.
© Crown 2012
Student 4: High Achieved
Please note – These are extracts from one Student’s Response
Next time you go to McDonalds have a look at the menu, and you will see item after item
advertising towards children. A lot of advertising these days is pointed towards children. They
always show happy, popular children, which look like all around, high achieving kids, who are
good at sport and school, this gives them the message that if they eat McDonalds for
example they will be just like that. This advertising shows children what they think everyone
else wants, and makes them want it for one simple reason, money.
A
Children seem to have a lot of control over their parent’s wallets, due to a lot of reasons; But
mostly due to their ability to pester their parents into buying what they want. Take the Happy
meal for example, it’s got happy children on the packaging when you unwrap it, it’s like
unwrapping a present (and who doesn’t like that kind of joy?), it comes with a toy and your
B
choice of a cheese burger or chicken nuggets, along with chips or fruit, and fizzy or water
(but the choice of water and fruit is usually turned down for chips and fizzy on the menu).
This entices children to want a happy meal, and seeing as they don’t have any money, what
do they do? ). "Some advertisers admit that an important factor in their marketing campaigns
is to manipulate children to nag their parents for products" . (Broadcasting Bad Health.WHO.
K.Dalmeny, E.Hanna, T.Lobsten. (IACFO) July 2003 ) They nag there parents until they get
want they want. This is called pester power. Parents eventually give in, mostly because they
feel like they are time poor, and feel like they don’t spend enough time with their children.
Therefore to relieve their guilt they give in and buy there children what ever they want, to
make them happy and to hear them say,” You are the best mummy/daddy” or “I love you
mummy/daddy”.
This continues onto children’s birthday parties as well; if you want your child to be popular,
and always be having a fun time (just like in the adverts on T.V.), you will give them a
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McDonalds birthday party. Then your child will be popular at school, and do well in life. This
is what these advertisements are telling parents, and some due to having to work 5-6 days a
week full time feel like they don’t get to spend enough time with their children; and so this will
be a nice thing to do for them on their birthday. But little do they know that they are walking
into McDonalds planned “trap”, and passing over their money.
” McDonald’s New Zealand is a Iong-term sponsor of junior sport in New Zealand, ….Our
support helps more than 750,000 Kiwi kids get out there and active playing sport each
weekend. With both junior soccer and touch rugby," (http://mcdonalds.co.nz/aboutus/corporate-responsibility/our-community) Children who play sports like netball, soccer or
rugby, are all aiming for that one prize, player of the day. When you get this you get to take
home a small trophy for the week, and show it off to everyone, AND you get a voucher for
either a cheese burger or small fries. McDonalds is sponsoring young New Zealand
sportsman, this is at the aim of trying to show parents once again, that they care about your
child, and that to make them happy you just have to take them to McDonalds. But the catch
here is that you can only purchase these fries or the cheese burger IF you buy something
else. That way they are getting more business out of you, for something that is inexpensive
compared to the family that is coming in with the child that has just won the voucher, for a
small food item off the menu, and who will probably end up with a whole meal. You give up
your money for just one free item off the menu. Once again we are walking into the trap that
McDonalds has purposefully set to get us to separate with our money.
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We as New Zealanders spend a lot of money on Takeaways, last year (2011) we spent $1.1
billion on food from major fast food chains. Our most popular being McDonalds, of which we
spent $500 million around New Zealand. This kind of brand loyalty comes from when we
where little, a lot of children can recognise Ronald McDonald, or the golden arches before E
they even know their own name. This sticks with them throughout their life, as if when they
were younger and they had a good time at McDonalds, they will keep going back, when they
are in their twenties. This comes from all of the advertising that we are exposed to,
McDonalds spent $21,420,000 on advertising in 2005. Most of this is aimed at children, who
are likely to want to go to McDonalds, if its advertised correctly towards their trends at the
time.
According to http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/obesity/obesitykey-facts-and-statistics childhood obesity is a pressing reality for some, one in four children
between the ages of 2-14 is obese, that is 8.3%, and one in five children is overweight. And
Pacific Islander children being 2.5 times more to be overweight and obese. McDonalds has
realised this and has followed this trend, by giving happy meals (a meal aimed towards
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children) a healthy alternative, of fruit instead of chips, and milk instead of fizzy. Akoorie, in
the article ‘Fat study accuses fast food sponsors’, NZ Herald 2012 states “Children do not
have the maturity and cognitive development to make the healthiest food choices particularly
in a society where they are heavily targeted by the food industry". This is all good and well
until you look at how many children are actually taking this option? Only 11% according to
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1678328/a-mcdonalds-dietitian-on-the-healthier-happy-meal and
88% of these customers know about this option. This is because people know that they
should have the fruit option, but aren’t wanting to give up there chips to get it.
Exemplar for internal assessment resource Home Economics 3.4B for Achievement Standard 91469
Grade Boundary: Low Achieved
5.
To Achieve this standard the student needs to explain factors that influence eating
patterns, present information on a range of practices used by multinational food
corporations to influence eating patterns and explain how the practices used by
multinational food corporations influence eating patterns in New Zealand.
Practices targeted at children include – ‘slogans…it’ (A), ‘have increased…the day’ (B),
and ‘building playgrounds…money’ (C). Brief reasons have been connected to access
to changing technology – ‘the television…internet’ (A) and targeted behaviour – ‘by
nagging…tantrums’ (B).
Further details are included on how these practices influence the consumers’ choice of
foods, mainly focused on feelings of guilt and also relieving guilt – ‘They relieve…kids
happy’ (D). Brief reasons are included connected to working parents, saving time and
stress – ‘They changed…affordable too’ (A), ‘While now…saying no’ (B) and ‘Making
parents…to buy’ (D).
To reach Achievement more securely the student would need to explain in more detail
how practices used by multinational food corporations have influenced peoples’
attitudes, values and behaviour towards food choices, supported with evidence.
© Crown 2012
Student 5: Low Achieved
Please note – These are extracts from one Student’s Response
How Does Marketing Change our Eating Habits?
Because of Marketing we are more inclined to believe that fast foods are cheap and easier
than that of a home cooked meal. The seven biggest fast food chains in New Zealand are
McDonalds, KFC, Burger King, Dominos, Hell Pizza, Pizza Hut and Wendy’s between these
seven they earn together $1.1 billion dollars. They changed our values thinking if we go to
their restaurant it will save us time, stress and everyone is happy and that it is affordable too.
This has changed our attitude to unhealthy food, in my home economics class nearly
everyone said they ate whatever was cheap and easy to get and that it didn’t matter if it was
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healthy or not. This can damage our wellbeing in more than one way as most food these
days have heaps of artificial food colourings and flavours and the way animals are treated is
another concern. Will that in itself damage our spiritual, mental and physical sides of our
hauora, and to us it seems cheap that is only because we only buy for us not anyone else
and we don’t end up sharing it so how does that damage us as a society when we grew up
with the saying “sharing is caring” does that mean our generation doesn’t care anymore?
One other very effective form of marketing is slogans as it get stuck in your head e.g. I’m
Loving it’. If they are thinking like this now what’s to stop them from thinking that way for the
rest of their life and endanger their health of them and their families? The ways the
advertising has changed - it used to be the radio and mailers then the television now it has
become the television, text messaging, smart phone and apple apps and the internet.
Why does marketing to children work so well?
Children and teenagers are targeted for many reasons. They influence adult spending
money by nagging, yelling and throwing tantrums. If you have ever been in a supermarket
some have increased spending power-they have money of their own and if they are targeted
it creates long term brand loyalty and recognition – Ronald McDonald, golden arches help
maintain and remind us of that. Some marketing techniques are linking food and drinks to B
toys and entertainment – by the toy being a character from a film that has been newly
released. A marketing publication has said that “the key to attracting kids is toys, toys, toys”.
Another form of marketing is sponsorships with schools, events and sports e.g. Cadbury’s
chocolate fundraising, Road Patrol and player of the day. Pester power is a concern for
anyone who has experienced it as multinational fast food companies prey on this. The
definition of this is “the power children have by repeated nagging of influencing their parents
to buy advertised or fashionable items.” The most common one I have heard is “But
everyone else has one why can’t I have one too”. This wasn’t labelled as pester power until
the late 20th century which shows the change of the parent and child relationship in western
societies because back then the child would have been content with whatever they had.
While now parents are working more and longer which leads them to be money rich but time
poor. This makes it easier for the parent to relent to the nagging than keep on saying no.
The fast food industry increased its spending on children in the past decade from $100
Million in the 1990’s to more than $2 billion in 2000.
Another form of marketing that McDonalds and other fast food companies love to use is
marketing to children by either building playgrounds in which case in America McDonalds
has over 8000 playgrounds in their restaurants a manufacture of the playgrounds said the
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reason why fast food chains have them is because “play lands bring in children, who bring in
parents who bring in money”
How they cause and relieve guilt
Guilt plays a role in spending decisions as time stressed parents substitute material goods
for time spent with their children. Making parents feel guilty all started in the 1980’s when
many working parents started to feel guilty about not spending any time with their kids-and
started spending more money on them. This made Multinational companies start paying
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attention to kids and started telling them what to buy. Today you can see the changes that
mean some marketing agencies are totally devoted to advertising to kids. They relieve guilt
by supporting charities and the Ronald McDonald house. Another is by having
advertisements up saying “fair trade coffee” ”free range eggs” and having weight watcher
points up in a way for us to say – ‘ah it’s okay, it only 5 points to eat that and I can have a
bottle of water too”. Thanks to sponsorships if a child got a player of the day they got a
coupon to get a free cheeseburger, and if the parent said no it made them the bad parent
which made the parent feel guilty. Another way it relieved guilt is when it’s McDonalds day,
a large percentage of the days takings gets put into charity and this is done worldwide
including New Zealand. For many hard working parents, buying a kids meal that includes a
free toy like my little pony and Ben 10 seems like an easy way to make their kids happy. The
reason marketing people pick on kids is because if a child thinks that they need something
they turn into sales people and try to convince there parent in anyway shape and form by
using pleading to guilt, to pity.
‘Chew on this’ by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson
‘Popularized’- http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/Joaquin/Popularized.htm
The retail examiner fast food, fast money sheet
Food marketing sheet
Pester power sheet
How marketers target kids photocopy sheet
How sponsorships deals benefit large companies photocopy sheet
Happy deals: McDonalds gobbles up more properties
‘What’s wrong with McDonalds?’ - http://www.mcspotlight.org/case/pretrial/factsheet.html
‘Key Facts and Statistics – Obesity’ - http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-andconditions/obesity/obesity-key-facts-and-statistics
‘Health Statistics – Obesity(most recent) by country’ http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity
Consequences: High Fat,Salt,Sugar
Fast food the ready meal
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Exemplar for internal assessment resource Home Economics 3.4B for Achievement Standard 91469
Grade Boundary: High Not Achieved
6.
To Achieve this standard the student needs to explain factors that influence eating
patterns, present information on a range of practices used by multinational food
corporations to influence eating patterns and explain how the practices used by
multinational food corporations influence eating patterns in New Zealand.
A range of practices have been briefly explained to show how the multinational
companies influence and change our behaviour. Making people feel they are getting
value for money is behind the practice of upsizing – ‘Upsizing…like a pig’ (B) and ‘buy
a combo…better after’ (D).
While a clear description is provided on how chicken nuggets may be made, more
detail is needed to show how putting ‘a veil between the consumer and producer’
influences our food choices (C). ‘eat anywhere, anytime’ and ‘also drink with meals’
have been described as adopted practices that are now common eating patterns (E).
The practice of ‘Marketing’ has been briefly explained. Techniques used to influence
the food choices of children include being recognisable ‘McDonalds…own name’, (F)
the use of pester power ‘a strategy…child’ (G) and manipulation with toys ‘The happy
meal…product’ (H).
In order to Achieve this standard the student would need to explain the practices in
more detail to show how eating patterns have been influenced and changed over time.
© Crown 2012
Student 6: High Not Achieved
Please note – These are extracts from one Student’s Response
Multinational fast food companies have dramatically changed our eating patterns. They have
done this by using strategies that we are desensitised to so that we don’t actually see that
under their caring exterior they are evil nasty corporations that are slowly killing off our
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values and beliefs. Some of these strategies are changing our behaviour, marketing to
children, relieving guilt and predictability.
Changing Our Behaviour:
Some of the things may seem small but in reality it’s had a massive effect on us. A good
example of this is upsizing. Upsizing may seem harmless and seem like it’s just there to give
us the options but think about it, why isn’t the default size small. It’s because they want us to
think that we are getting value for our money but in reality it’s all about the profit to them.
B
Around 9 out of 10 people will upsize their Mc Donald’s meal to a large because we are
made to think that if we just have one large meal then we don’t have to feel like a pig but if
we have two small meals we end up feeling like a pig. The consequences of this are that you
end up eating a lot more calories etc. that are going to contribute to you gaining more weight
in the future. To put it in perspective an average adults diet should contain no more than
2245 calories a day and at McDonalds a small kids meal with a cheeseburger, fries and a
small chocolate milk contains 700 calories and if it’s a kid eating this is more than half what
their daily intake is. We have become oblivious to what we are eating and we need to start
paying more attention.
Multinational fast food companies have put a veil between the consumer and the producer
that needs to be cut out because we deserve to know what’s really in our food. Chicken is a
great example of this. In a class of around 30 Home Economics students the teacher put up
a picture of Mc Donald’s chicken nugget filling and no one in the class knew it was chicken
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nugget filling everyone thought it was soft serve ice cream. To make it worse all the soft
serve looking meat will be soaked in ammonia which gives it a disgusting taste and then it’s
artificially re flavoured and then dyed because it’s pink. We don’t really know what’s in the
meat and mushy nugget goop we eat.
Multinational fast food companies have changed the way we think about budgeting. They
have got us in a mind-set where we think that we are getting value for our money but really if
you priced out all the ingredients in the food you would be able to create that product at
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home. This is really obvious if you go to McDonalds and buy a combo for each member of
the family and you look at the price you will see that you can make a meal and more that you
family will enjoy more and feel better after.
Fast food corporations have given us the option of quick easy food that can be eaten
wherever whenever and they have cut out the middleman (the knife and fork) in the process.
The knife has felt the force of the fast food and has been cast aside in everyday life. Most of
the meat and food used these days is either already chopped or its processed or it can be
cut by a fork. This was started when McDonalds was in its first years and they were trying to
cut costs so they got rid of knifes and forks and plates so you could eat anywhere, anytime
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and nowadays not many homes would use a knife in their meals. This has also effected
where we eat. We also drink with meals but back in the old days they never had a drink with
dinner you would have it after and these days it’s usually a fizzy drink, alcohol or high sugar
drinks. Because of the accessibility of food these days we can eat where we want when we
want and we wont eat at the table anymore. We eat in front of the TV or computer on the
couch and in the car. In these places we don’t socialise and studies have proven that we eat
more when in front of the TV and end up eating more than you need.
Marketing To Children:
Multinational food companies all follow the number 1 rule in the fast food business and that’s
to get your name out their and be recognized for something. The main fast food company is
a clear winner and I don’t think I even need to name it but I will McDonalds. McDonalds are
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the clear leader when it comes to fast food and being recognizable the golden arches is
known over the world. 9 out of 10 children in America will know who Ronald McDonald is
before they can even spell their own name. We in New Zealand are following after America
and soon this might even happen here.
Mc Donald’s have created strategies to get children to annoy parents until they finally give in.
One of these strategies is Pester power. Pester power is a strategy that McDonalds did
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heaps of research for and they have discovered that if their signs are placed a certain
distance away from there restaurant so that by the time they reach it the child has nagged
their parent so much that the parent caves in and buys McDonald’s for the child.
Another major way that McDonald’s targets children is through toys with happy meals. The
happy meal is highly recognized as the children’s meal at McDonald’s but the main attraction
for children to the happy meal is the collectable toy that comes with it. Studies have shown
that in 2006 McDonald’s spent over $520 million on marketing children’s meals and $350
million of that was on marketing the toys. Another study showed that nearly every child that
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has been offered a collectable toy with a meal will choose that meal over a different one.
They did this by offering children the option of soup with a collectable toy and a burger with
fries but no toy and nearly every child chose the soup because of the toy. This shows that
the company’s that provide us with what seems like harmless foods are actually tricking us
into buying their product.