Opinion

Experience, not ads, sets behavior

Posted August 13, 2007 11:00 pm

The article, "Brand loyalty at age 4?" (Aug. 7) lacks critical logic. The editors of the Daily Herald obviously want flash over substance.

The article's "expert" states that advertising makes children think food tastes better when it is wrapped in McDonald's-branded wrapping. Even carrots in McDonald's-branded paper taste better. Nice theory, but the McDonald's symbol combined with the child's experience from eating at McDonald's is what creates that behavior.

It's not the advertisements as the author claimed. If they had a poor experience with McDonald's, then they would have a negative response to the McDonald's brand. Case in point is the advertisement for the cherry flavored children's medicine. Most children do not like the medicine and associate the brand with their taste experience regardless of the advertisements claims.

The editors should have seen that Diane Levin's stated agenda of limiting advertising to children clearly hijacked the results of that study, and not given it the status of front-page news.

Richard Bolesta

Schaumburg

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