Friday, October 20, 2006

My First Million Dollar Idea

Again I'm stealing from bookofjoe. I can't help it. He's a great blogger. He often offers up his million dollar ideas for free to the first person willing to build them.

Well, here, up for grabs, is my first million dollar idea.

Sitting in an obesity conference all day long, you get to thinking about obesity.

Certainly one of the problems with regards to the development of obesity is the fact that if it sets in before the end of childhood, the likelihood is, it's going to stick.

One of the problem with childhood obesity is that the children are themselves consumers. And while you and I hopefully make health a priority in our lives, kids are dramatically swayed by marketing, with corporations preying on our children's unholy attachments to folks like Dora and using her simply to sell the pre-requisite Dora cereal and in general encourage children to consume highly refined, less nutritious foods.

I believe it was Dateline (or maybe 60 minutes...it was one of those shows) that showed children were in fact more likely to choose a rock with stickers of Sponge Bob on it for a snack, than a poor old banana.

Seeing that picture of the laser etched fruit got me thinking....

Why can't we laser etch Sponge Bobs and Doras and all sorts of cartoon characters onto our fruit and vegetables?

Now I know that this isn't going to in and of itself do a heck of a lot to stem the tide of obesity, but hey, if it'll help promote nutrition in our children, and at the same time generate profits for fruit and vegetable growers (both from increased purchase and from folks like Nickoledeon) it certainly can't hurt.

Probably a lot more than a million bucks for the person who can present Disney, Nickoledeon and others a means to market their cartoons on actually healthy products.