As a class, we were introduced to this project right from the start and the expectations were set clear. However, when we were introduced to the project at the end of January, it seemed like May was a lifetime away but it really caught up to us quickly. Overall, I really enjoyed this project. I liked the fact that we were able to pick our own topics since that means we could obviously choose a topic that we are truly interested in and be excited to research. My group all agreed on our topic of fast food labeling and advertisements right away because we noticed how prevalent fast food is in our society and how many people do not know how to read a nutrition label, and notice when they are being advertised to. 

The work did not feel daunting since it was a topic that interested my group and I. I enjoyed researching articles for the literature review, and after I had the literature review written, the project felt easier because all I had to do was put the pieces together to make it clear. Creating our research question was a bit difficult because we had to ensure it was clear and concise with a clear focus without giving away too much information. We all had to really work together and contribute to make a strong research question. 

Every group member had a different part of the project they had to complete and focus on, and at the end, we put all our different aspects to create one cohesive project. It was a bit difficult to see what everyone had completed separately because we could not meet up in person. However, besides the fact that we could not meet up in person, my group did a great job at keeping the communication among us strong. We consistently updated each other in our group chat about what we got done, and what was left. We also had to make sure our communication was strong because we had to ensure that our different parts worked well together, and were not just random parts we threw together. 

I also am really glad that we still were able to have a formal peer editing day, even if it was not in person because each group member member received feedback that helped them. We also still had meetings with Professor Conroy where we were able to ask questions or voice any concerns we had which was helpful. 

I was in charge of creating the twitter account for the project and I enjoyed it a lot. It was really fun to be in charge of the twitter account because I got to experience what it would be like to be the head of an organization’s social media account, even if it was fake. I had to make sure my tweets were not too lengthy since Twitter has a word limit which was difficult but that just meant I had to choose which parts I wanted to keep in and which parts to delete. However, it became difficult when the tweet passed the word limit because of the citation, and I could not leave out the citation but there was nothing I could delete from the tweet.

With creating the Twitter account, I had to make sure my tweets were not too lengthy because it is a younger population that is more reliant on social media therefore they do not like to read a lot so I had to make sure I went straight to the point. I also had to make sure it was easy to understand since the audience is not experienced in the sciences so they do not understand complex terms. Overall, this project was extremely fun and I enjoyed it. I wish we were able to present our findings to our classmates in person, but I am thankful for the opportunities technology gives us with being able to present online.

I have never written a literature review prior to this assignment so it was interesting to say the least. The two examples we were given to use as references helped a bit, but I did not really know where to start. Finding three sources to use were the easiest part of this assignment because the CUNY databases automatically gives us access to the full academic articles without having to pay for it. All I had to do was type in “nutrition advertising” into the search bar and multiple scholarly articles popped up that I could use and all I had to do was choose one.

When it came to composing the actual literature review, to be quite frank, I am unsure on if I did it right or not. I used the two examples we were given to the best of my ability but for some reason it did not help me therefore I wrote more of an essay rather than a review of the articles, comparing them. I tried my best, so I am hoping I did it correctly. Next time for the next essay, I hope we can have more time for peer review. There was one designated day for peer review so hopefully with the next essay, there could possibly be another one, but I am not quite sure how that would work since classes are online now.

The hardest part was just trying to figure out if I was doing it correctly with very little assistance because there were no in person classes. It was also due during a hectic time with the current situation of the world so that made it a little bit harder.

Writing the Personal Narrative Essay was much simpler than writing any other essay. Even though I had to think about what I was going to write about, I did not have to analyze published texts from other writers, nor did I have to do much outside research. Before writing out the paper, I completed the two brainstorm worksheets we were given- the reading one and the writing one- which helped me figure out what I wanted to focus on in the paper. After I had a general idea of what I wanted to write about, I went to the Writing Center and talked out my ideas with them, and the tutor helped me with the layout of my paper like when to include which details and how to write it. After that session, I got to work. I typed out my first draft and printed it. The next day in class, we did the peer review, so I received specific feedback from my peer, and from Professor Furlong on what I can improve on. With the feedback I got, I revisited my paper, and edited it to the best of my ability adding in more specific details and quotes. Then, I attempted to take my paper back to the Writing Center but I did not have an appointment so that did not work out. However, I took my paper to one of my friends instead who read it and gave me a few general comments regarding word choice and grammar which I corrected, and the next day, I handed in my final copy.

The Personal Narrative Essay is an informational paper that it meant to teach the audience about my relationship with reading and writing and how it has evolved. I wrote this paper for an assignment so that the professor can better understand me as a reader and writer. The audience is Professor Furlong because he is the one reading and grading my paper. I wanted him to better understand what I am like as a reader and writer and what he can expect from me. I am a credible writer for this topic because I wrote it about myself, and not anybody else, because I experienced it. The assignment was relatively easy because I had all the information an easy access because if I got stuck, I was able to ask my mom for help and I was able to look for my old writings and books to help me. Overall, this assignment was straightforward and a great first assignment for the first semester of college.

Research Question:
Do the way fast food chains compose their advertisements affect the amount of food consumed among children and adults? Are there any drastic differences in the way advertisements are geared towards children and adults?

Introduction

In recent years, the rate of obesity has skyrocketed, and the amount of people diagnosed with chronic diseases has increased. There is not one root cause for these issues because it is a multifactorial problem. The quality of food has decreased, and more people are relying on food that is food-like and not in its whole form. They are eating processed food that is fast, cheap, and convenient which is taking a toll on health. Fast food places have huge portions that leads to consumers overeating, and many fast food places do not provide nutritional information of their food. Even if nutritional information is provided, many consumers do not know how to read nutrition labels effectively and properly or they simply choose to ignore it. Fast food places strategically create advertisements to gain the attention of consumers so that they will be attracted to the food and therefore want to try it.

Summary
Overall advertising has become more prominent in everyday life. Children, especially, encounter multiple advertisements a day. In a study funded by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and National Institutes of Health published by PLOS One called How Television Fast Food Marketing Aimed at Children Compares with Adult Advertisements compared quick service restaurants television advertisements for children’s meals and adult meals from the same companies to determine whether companies had implemented self-regulatory pledges. It was concluded that children’s advertisements did not focus primarily on food compared to the adult advertisements; children advertisements concentrated more on toy giveaways and movie tie-ins in attempt to grab children’s attention. Companies know how to appeal to the audience, especially young children who cannot see past the advertising gimmicks. In Television Food Advertising to Children: A Global Perspective published by American Journal of Public Health, they discussed a study that was conducted comparing television food advertising to children in different countries (Australia, Asia, Western Europe, North America, and South America). Each group recorded programming for 2 weekdays and 2 weekend days between 6:00 and 22:00, for the 3 channels most viewed by children (Bridget, et al., 2010). They classified food advertisements as core (nutrient dense), noncore (high in undesirable nutrients or energy), or miscellaneous; food advertisements composed eleven percent to twenty nine percent of advertisements and noncore foods were featured in fifty three percent to eighty seven percent of food advertisements, and the rate of noncore food advertising was higher during children’s highest viewing times (Bridget, et al., 2010). Most food advertisements containing persuasive marketing were for noncore products which leads to children being exposed to high levels of advertisements for unhealthy food with persuasive techniques geared specifically at them.
The article Breakfast Cereal Industry Pledges to Self-Regulate Advertising to Youth: Will They Improve the Marketing Landscape? discusses how in 2007, the Council of Better Business Bureaus created the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative to ameliorate the nutritional profile of products marketed to children in the United States. Advertising unhealthy food products has been identified as a contributor to the poor eating habits of United States youth. Industry self-regulatory efforts are an important right direction towards improving and creating an environment that promotes healthy foods rather than foods filled with sugar, fat, and calories that are addicting. Companies need to take this more seriously for the sake of future generations.

Advertisements
Humans encounter food advertisements in many different places- commercials when watching television, billboards when driving, on social media, and many other ways. When companies create the advertisements, they are not considering the health of humans, in fact, it is quite the opposite. They are more concerned about generating profit. They advertise to children and adults so that they will want to eat their products. Food advertisement directed at children is the top factor of the obesity crisis among children (Kelly, et al. 2010). Children do not realize they are being advertised to, so they buy into it and beg their parents to take them to McDonald’s to eat chicken nuggets in order to get a small toy or to Chick-Fil-A to eat a chicken sandwich to play in the play area.
Children are also not seeing advertisements for fruits, vegetables, or whole grains. The most common advertisements they meet are for “non-core foods” such as ice cream, snack foods, and fruit juice; the non-core foods account for sixty seven percent of food advertisements children see (Kelly, et al. 2010). The advertisements children encounter from watching television is drastic. The top four channels that play food advertisements are Cartoon Network (32.3%), Nickelodeon (18.3%), Disney XD (16.2%), Nicktoons (12.4%) with all those channels having zero advertisements for adults except Nickelodeon which has nine (Bernhardt, et al. 2013). Companies also have advertisements geared towards adults. Zero percent of fast food advertisements meant for adults portrayed healthy food such as fruit (Bernhardt, et al. 2013). Adult obesity is on the rise as well therefore all the measures taken regarding children advertisements should be enforced for adult advertisements as well. All three articles agree on the fact that children come into too much contact with advertisements which leads to them wanting to eat unhealthy foods rather than nutritious foods.

Self-Regulation Advertising
Companies need to be wiser regarding the advertisements they put out into the world because they need to recognize that children are easily influenced and do not have the capability of making wise food choices at a young age, especially when the adults in their lives do not make them. Adolescence in the United States alone view 5,500 food advertisements yearly (Schwartz, et al, 2010). Multiple food companies have created nutrition standards and guidelines for foods specifically marketed at children. However, “each company defined ‘marketing to children’ and ‘healthier’ foods according to their own criteria, but they all pledged to meet these marketing goals by January 2009” (Schwartz, et al, 2010). As shown in the other two articles, companies have not been meeting the nutrition standards they said they would meet. In fact, it seems like more and more companies are advertising non-nutritious foods to children in hopes of getting them to eat more.

Conclusion
Food companies compose advertisements strategically with the goal in mind in gaining as much profit as possible by appealing to the consumers through various tactics. They do not care about the wellbeing of their consumers therefore people should take their health into their own hands. Food companies do not advertise nutrient rich food because that is not what generates profit. Nobody yearns for real food- that is why there are never advertisements for tomatoes or blueberries. There are only advertisements for man made products. If people took the time to understand what was in their food, there would be less health issues arising. Not only do people need to question food companies, companies also need to understand that they should care for their customers health and if it is not food they would want their families to eat, then they should not feed it to strangers.

Works Cited Page
Bernhardt AM, Wilking C, Adachi-Mejia AM, Bergamini E, Marijnissen J, Sargent JD (2013) How Television Fast Food Marketing Aimed at Children Compares with Adult Advertisements. PLoS ONE 8(8): e72479. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0072479

Bridget Kelly, Jason C.G. Halford, Emma J. Boyland, Kathy Chapman, Inmaculada Bautista-Castan ̃o, Christina Berg, Margherita Caroli, Brian Cook, Janine G. Coutinho,Tobias Effertz, Evangelia Grammatikaki, Kathleen Keller, Raymond Leung, Yannis Manios, Renata Monteiro, Claire Pedley, Hillevi Prell, Kim Raine, Elisabetta Recine, Lluis Serra-Majem, Sonia Singh, and Carolyn Summerbell. (2010). Television Food Advertising to Children: A Global Perspective. American Journal of Public Health, Vol 100, No. 9. https://web-b-ebscohost-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=b7cbdb7c-aeee-41a2-88ab-0c74a1b7c1bc%40pdc-v-sessmgr04

Schwartz B. Marlene, Ross Craig, Harris L. Jennifer, Jernigan H. David, Siegel Michael, Ostroff Joshua, and Brownwell D. Kelly. (2010). Breakfast Cereal Industry Pledges to Self-Regulate Advertising to Youth: Will They Improve the Marketing Landscape? Journal of Public Health Policy, Vol. 31, No. 1. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40542250

The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) composed multiple campaigns to raise awareness regarding the rapidly growing obesity epidemic. OMA is a doctor’s group that advocates for and supports the wellbeing of their members. They have a goal of transforming Ontario’s health care system. Over the last few years, there has been a growing obesity epidemic because of the increased consumption of fast food and sugary drinks which frustrates doctors and has them advocating for drastic measures to combat the issue. This campaign is putting fast food in the same category as cigarettes by emphasizing that they should have the same warning labels found on tobacco products. The campaign above shows a takeout pizza box illuminated with the image of a slimy, discolored organ and warning that “excess consumption” contributes to obesity and results in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. OMA’s purpose is to highlight the risks that come with consuming these products so that the truth will be revealed. This is an urgent situation and if the necessary steps are not taken sooner rather than later, there will great consequences.
OMA is concerned about the obesity epidemic and the negative consequences that arises with it. Their stance is to educate the audience about what “excess consumption” of pizza could do the body so that less people would eat these food-like products and rely more on actual food. The campaign is meant to educate the audience because the wordings and visuals are straightforward and easy to comprehend for the average person. The campaign is straight to the point and since it resembles the graphic warning labels found on cigarettes, the audience can see how dangerous these foods are and the risks associated with them. It is clear to the audience that this product is harmful from the campaign; even if the discolored organ was not present, it would still be explicit because of the warning label that people automatically associate with cigarettes. The colorless organ is there to shock the audience because it shows them that what they consume really does have negative consequences on their bodies even if it is not immediate.
The genre of this text is a campaign poster attempting to raise awareness about the negative relationship between ingesting fast food and the effect it has on the human body. The audience is all people since it is very common humans consume these foods more than they should be. The audience is those who consume these foods regularly and believe it is healthy, particularly in the Western world since that is where fast food is most prevalent. The campaign shows a takeout pizza box which that is one of the most common foods consumed which is why the audience is all people since even those who consider themselves healthy consume pizza occasionally. The exigence of this text is clear. The creators of this campaign wrote this because obesity is becoming a norm. More and more people are becoming obese, and doctors cannot seem to stop it. Humans have become reliant on fast food because of its convenience and price, but do not realize they are harming themselves because of all the fillers and lack of nutrition in these foods.
The organization appeals to emotions with the graphic images of the organ and hole in the foot because it disturbs people. When people eat unhealthy foods, they do not realize the effect it has on their body. Often, they eat the burger or the pizza, and then move on with their day. But seeing the colorless organ associated with the pizza, people may feel fear and realize the foods they eat can either promote disease or health. Pizza is a common staple in the Western diet. Schools give children pizza for lunch and parents grab a box of takeout pizza for dinner when they do not want to cook, and this is all perceived as normal. The campaign used words like “obesity” and “Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease” to scare the audience because these words have negative connotations associated with them since no person wants to be sick. Use of these words will cause the audience to not want to eat pizza a ton because everyone wants to be healthy.
This campaign appeals to ethics because of the OMA logo on the bottom right of the poster and their website on the bottom left. The logo shows the audience that this is coming from a credible source but also gives them their website in case they want to do more research on the background of the organization. The OMA is a well-known organization, especially in Canada because the organization represents the political, clinical, and economic interests of Ontario physicians.
There are little constraints with the campaigns. The campaign is easy to understand, and it is clear what the argument is therefore there is not much room for error. However, the authors never include better alternatives to the pizza that could potentially benefit those who want to transition into a healthier lifestyle. They could potentially include healthier alternatives to the pizza. Providing this information could help more individuals who are reluctant to changing their way of life. The creators of this campaign do not utilize logos; there is no statistics, facts, data, charts, or graphs which is a constraint.
The campaign is successful since it is clear what the authors want the audience to get from it and it is easy for them to understand. Just by looking at the campaign, any person can see the dangers of these foods, even if they had no prior knowledge on OMA and what they stand for. Overall, the campaign is very effective and can help change lives. The information presented in the campaigns is crucial because humans need to alter the way they eat now before it is too late to go back to the right way of fueling their bodies.

Works Cited Page
Ha, T. T. (2018, May 9). Junk food needs graphic warning labels similar to tobacco, Ontario doctors say. Retrieved from
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/junk-food-needs-graphic-warning-labels-similar-to-tobacco-ontario-doctors-say/article4631243/