Dr. Norah Campbell:

I do not think one will find any serious scholar in the social sciences who would support some sort of co-creative effort with these industries in schools for health promotion reasons. That is definitely not something any serious person would support. The other thing which is important to say is junk food companies make a defensive argument which states children just need literacy, in that they simply need to be more media literate. This argument has been overblown and overused. Just because one understands content, it does not mean to say one is able to resist it.

Much research, in terms of long ethnographies in schools starting in the early 1990s showed when kids liked a brand, they would come in and use the same jokes or character by imitating the character in the brand. They are not interested in the nutritional content. They are interested in how this thing can enable them to be together, so it is not about literacy. I know the planet is on fire. Does it stop me driving a car? No, it does not. I know junk food is bad for me, but I was looking at TikTok For Business website a couple of days ago and I saw Cadbury with 203.5 million views. A campaign TikTok has launched for Pringles business account says:

when Pringles came to TikTok to generate mass brand awareness with a new audience of digital natives, it certainly encouraged playful engagement. Over a billion TikTok users engaged with Pringles, generating an unstoppable creative force truly reserved for the most viral moments.

Again and again, it is these media platforms which are saying to their clients they can promise them the very thing we are all here to say will not happen or the happening of which we are in denial about. When I am on the TikTok For Business website and I am looking at the OREO campaigns, I cannot stop watching them because I am fascinated by them and want to eat OREOs as a result of it. If I am a marketing scholar who knows the exact process of how this is happening, how come it is affecting me? I would be really cautious of the fallacy of literacy.