Junk Food Kids - Who's To Blame?

I watched a 2 part programme called Junk Food Kids Who'd To Blame and found it really infuriating. It was centred around a few different families with overweight, obese or unhealthy kids. One of the main points was that parents should accept responsibility for what foods they're giving to their children, and it was really shocking to see some of the statistics about tooth decay in toddlers, plus the amount of under 18s that are now having surgery like gastric bands.
The point that was hammered home was that aside from a few rare cases, most of the issues related to children's weight are completely preventable. Tooth decay especially - a totally preventable health issue.

The programme featured a 4 year old kid called Talulah who had to have 8 teeth removed due to the poor diet her mother had been feeding her. There's a really common mistake that crops up a lot of 'I thought fruit juice was good for them', but it goes to show that people aren't getting the right idea about a lot of foods out there. Especially sugary drinks.

I found a few articles following this that related to the programme as well as the issue of children having the surgery:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/635306/obesity-children-weight-loss-surgery-epidemic-Boris-Johnson-Sadiq-Khan-sugar-tax

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2953749/Now-doctors-boy-12-gastric-band-Youngest-British-patient-extreme-weight-loss-surgery-experts-declare-child-obesity-parents-fault-new-TV-expos.html

Sketchbook & Problems I've encountered

I'm not good at thinking particularly laterally so I'm struggling with conceptual illustration
I have ideas but then I can't get them down on paper. Which is stupid because that's what I'm supposed to be here doing a degree for. I think I'm just a bit better at more decorative illustration maybe.. I don't ever feel as though I can get much of a message across and I don't think my mind works in the right way to translate these kinds of messages into drawings.. I'm just losing any kind of belief in myself at the moment. But hey ho.

I've been working in my sketchbook and trying to just get ideas down, even if they're rubbish. 

I tried to think about what advertising means to me or what it often suggests. That's when I thought of the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. This guy seriously haunted me as a kid, the whole film did actually, it is messed up...
Anyway, the idea of luring kids in with songs, bright colours, the idea of fun, sweeties and lollypops - then capturing them and shoving them into a cage to whisk them away. It's the concept of preying on the innocent minds of children and taking full advantage of their enthusiasm, creativity and curiosity I guess.

From this character, I developed a creepy Ronald McDonald. He's like the biggest icon ever in terms of fast food mascots, and acts as a distraction to kids, covering up the fact that the food is terrible. In my sketchbook he's got arms like a spider and a body like a maggot, with a sweat stained face and nasty teeth. I want him to look as repulsive as the food is. 

This could be pushed forward for one of my publication ideas of 'truthful advertising' - showing the true nature or value of the products through the way I draw the mascot.


I sketched out a potential concertina book which could feature truthful mascots and advertising. But again, not tying myself down to any ideas just yet because I need to develop them further. I wanted to keep drawing and generating ideas.

Then I hit a point where I started using collage and realised that this was far more effective in conveying messages. I think I'd been struggling with what kind of tone to use, I don't often work with colour so putting this into my work was also difficult. However, using collage provided me with the images that I could then cut edit and compose in my own way to explain what I was trying to communicate. Plus, it was more fun. I enjoyed the process of finding images and making illustrations from them more interesting at this point.

It inspired MORE ideas for publications. However, I'm gradually running out of time so need to be making decisions about what I'm doing so that I can start the production of the publication.

Chipotle & Publication concept

I've been thinking about concepts for my publication and suddenly remembered this video. It's advertising Chipotle Mexican Grill through a really beautiful and effective animation. It shows a scarecrow working in the city to cover up the wrong doings of the food industry, especially in regards to animal welfare. He hammers up adverts painted with happy, free range animals, in order to hide the real treatment of them, before heading out to his own sustainable, ethical garden full of fresh vegetables. 

The message is pretty strong and very clear. Funnily enough though, last year Chipotle lost a whole load of customer trust after an E.coli outbreak which sickened 53 people in 9 different states.

Absolutely just proving its own point about advertising acting as a complete cover up.

Soooo that's awkward.

So, another publication idea:

Idea of a facade

Hiding something

Can I communicate this concept in a way in which it looks as though it is aimed at children but appeals to an older audience that understands the idea behind it?

Maybe like an interactive book where you lift flaps or turn pages to expose hidden nasties - could they be things like diseases, bacteria, human health issues etc personified as creatures or something?

Peer Feedback

Again, by this point my work hadn't progressed much because of being distracted by the other modules and struggling with a lack of motivation. I've lost interest in this project so it's really important now that I find something to push me forward again. 

We talked through our ideas as a group of 4 and had very little feedback for each other. I think peer crits are always difficult when people don't know enough about your project and it's impossible to tell them everything they would need to know for them to feel as though they're having a decent input unless you're progressed enough with the project which all of us weren't really. 

I got a thumbs up about the children's book idea that highlights nastiness in advertising, maybe using the colour schemes from different fast food / junk food companies without exclusively featuring their logos or anything.
I don't know though. I think it needs to be deeper than this and show more of something that not everyone would already know instead of stating the obvious. 
Could it have statistical elements?

Action Plan
Draw out any ideas for publication
Mind map and make notes in regards to development of publication ideas
Keep working on essay

Ted Talks

I've been watching a bunch of Ted Talks, mainly because at times they are more engaging than reading. Sometimes I guess I take certain points with a pinch of salt - plus because this is based in America, the statistics and issues with the FDA won't apply to the UK. However, my essay isn't only specific to the UK so it's general issues that I'm researching.

I've kept note of the following Ted Talks because a lot of really good points are made that I can incorporate into my essay to develop it further.